Creamy Yam Soup with Mini Meatballs Recipe

I love creamy, dairy-based, squash and potato soups I get every now and then at restaurants. I can't make these kinds of soups at home, so I decided to come up with a way I could make a creamy-type soup we can eat at home without using milk or cream. I had some left-over Roasted Yams and Carrots in my fridge and realized the roasted yams would be really good pureed in my blender with some chicken broth and put into a soup. The Egg-Free Mini Meatballs are a fantastic addition in place of pasta. This soup is so creamy and full of flavor, it is perfect as a main dish for lunch or dinner.

Creamy Yam Soup with Mini Meatballs Recipe

Make Roasted Yams and Carrots using this recipe. It will take 1 hour to roast the vegetables for this soup. You will need to let the roasted vegetables cool off before putting the yams in the blender to make the soup.

Make Egg-Free Mini Meatballs using this recipe. It will take about 30 minutes to make the meatballs. You can make them ahead of time and keep them in the fridge until you're ready to make the soup.

For the soup:

4 cups water, divided
2 tsp Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base(Kosher if you can find it), divided
Shredded parmesan cheese (fresh) (optional)

When the yams and carrots are cooled, remove the carrots and slice them in uniform slices. Put the sliced carrots aside.

Next, put half of the cooled, roasted yams in a blender. Add 2 cups of water mixed with 1 tsp of Better than Bouillon and "Liquify" the mixture. Pour the yam soup into a large soup pan over Medium-High heat. Put the second half of the roasted yams in the blender with 2 cups of water mixed with 1 tsp of Better than Bouillon and "Liquify" the mixture again. Pour it into the soup pot as well. Add the sliced carrots to the soup pot, along with the mini meatballs.

Gently stir all of the ingredients together in the soup pot. Let the soup come to an initial boil, then reduce the heat to Medium-Low and let it simmer for 30 minutes before serving. Shredded parmesan cheese (fresh) is a great topping for this soup. Serves 4 as a main dish.

Roasted Yams and Carrots Recipe (Vegan)

This side dish is one of our favorites. We eat it quite often with my Whole Roasted Chicken Recipe. The carmelized yams and carrots are a nice addition to any meat dish.

Roasted Yams and Carrots Recipe

2 medium yams
1 long carrot
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel the yams. Cut them in half, then in half again, and cut each piece into three more pieces. Put the yam pieces in a single layer in a 9x12 pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Peel the carrot and cut it into four pieces to match the size of the yam and add them to the pan with the yams. Drizzle a little olive oil over the yams and carrots, and salt and pepper to taste.

Cover the pan with a sheet of aluminum foil and roast for 50 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and roast for 10 more minutes (1 hour total roasting time). Serves 4 as a side dish.

Mashed Gingered Yams Recipe (Vegan)

I wanted a different way to cook yams other than just roasting them or making Baked Yam Fries. I played around with spices and discovered that ginger goes really well with roasted yams. Using carmelized, roasted yams and ginger in this recipe really makes a flavorful side dish.

Mashed Gingered Yams Recipe (Vegan)

2 medium yams (1.5 lbs total)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp dried ground ginger spice
1 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Peel the yams. Cut them in half, then in half again, and cut the remaining quarters in half. Put the yam pieces in a single layer in a 9x12 pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Drizzle a little olive oil over the yams, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover the pan with a sheet of aluminum foil and roast the yams for 50 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and roast the yams for 10 more minutes (1 hour total roasting time).

When the yams are done roasting, have a mixing bowl ready. Transfer the carmelized, roasted yams to the mixing bowl, add 1 tbsp of olive oil and the ginger, and use an electric hand mixer to whip up the mashed yams. Serves 2 adults (and one small child) as a side dish.

Baked Sweet Potato/Yam Fries Recipe (Vegan)

I stopped buying packaged french fries years ago because of Sam's hydrogenated soybean oil sensitivity. We love roasted sweet potatoes and yams, so to do something different, I started making fries, baking them instead of frying them. The nice thing is you don't need ketchup with these fries. They are flavorful enough to eat by themselves, and are a great finger-food to eat with tacos, fried fish, or hamburgers. The picture above are yam fries (sweet potato fries are not orange).

Baked Sweet Potato/Yam Fries Recipe

1 large sweet potato or yam (or 2 small)
Non-stick cooking spray
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Peel the skin off of the sweet potato/yam. Cut it into steak fry-sized strips, not too wide or thick. Place the strips on the cookie sheet side-by-side, not overlapping, with space in between them like this (this is one large yam):


When all of the strips are layed out on the cookie sheet, spray them with cooking spray, and then salt and pepper them to taste. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Fries will be slightly carmelized when done. Serves 2 adults (and one small child) as a side dish.