Sweet Potato Dessert Soup with Dried Longan Recipe

“Heart-warming & savoury sweet potato dessert soup with dried longan. Simple recipe and tips to attain perfect taste and texture of this sweet soup dish!”

You do have impression that potato-related food is generally a ‘fattening’ food, don’t you? Would you believe if I tell you only potato is considered as, but not the sweet potatoes? Yes, not all kinds are. Sweet potatoes are not a fattening food. In fact, both potato and sweet potato are NOT high in calorie. The difference is, potatoes contain higher GI (= 56 – 65) (which somehow related to ‘fattening’), while sweet potatoes are relatively low GI (= 48 – 54) food. Check out GI(Glycemic Index)/ GL elaboration here.

How to have sweet potato taken regularly with nice cooking ways, and yet, not causing weight issue? Besides having just the steamed ones, try to have it cooked into dessert soup! Cook the sweet potato in dessert soup might look simple and very easy for some season cook, but it could be quite a challenge to some newbies, to reach the desired taste and texture of the sweet potatoes, too. The key is to control the sweetness in your soup. I never liked my sweet dessert soup to be too sweet (smile), of course, cannot be tasted bland! A successful sweet potato soup, taste of the ginger in it counts, too. I won’t have the ginger tasted over-whelming. Neither would I forgo the spicy fragrance at all.

Don’t forget the sweet potatoes mustn’t be cooked too soft as it will lose its interesting bites and beautiful & glossy appearance. Over-cooked sweet potatoes look ‘aged’ and easily disintegrated upon ladling into bowls. Always test its readiness with a fork inserted into the potato, after boiling for 30 minutes or so.

I had my Purple (and yellow) Sweet Potato Dessert Soup Recipe previously. Last week, I cooked the orange flesh (with yellow flesh) soup, with dried longan pulp added. Dried longan (龙眼干), also called Gui Yuan (桂圆) in Chinese, is rather common in Chinese sweet pr tonic soup cooking. I liked dried longan in my dishes due to one of its main benefits, promoting better sleep, according to some Chinese practitioners. Dried longan looks dry (of course!) and shrinked before it’s cooked. Need not to pre-soak it, just wash and put in the soup to cook. You’ll have the bulging and chewy textured longan pulps once it’s cooked.

Dried longan complements the sweet potato soup so well. My sweet potato with dried longan dessert soup was a hit, when served to my friends and family.

It’s indeed imaginably simple, and easy to cook! Check it out now:

Ingredients
2 regular yellow flesh sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized/ small cubes
2 regular orange flesh sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized/ small cubes
1 palm-sized honey rock sugar (or normal rock sugar, if desired)
1 thick slice of ginger (about 1cm thick, thumb-sized), lightly smashed once
1 pot of water (about 1500ml)

Method
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add ginger slice. Put in dried longan, yellow and orange flesh sweet potatoes, and bring them to another boil. Reduce heat to low fire, add rock sugar, and simmer for 20 – 30 minutes, or until sweet potatoes just soften. Serve hot.

Of course, you can have some sweet potato caserroles or briny-taste dishes, instead of having it sweet. Give me some time, I will have more sweet potatoes recipe in due (trying… winking smile)!

A bowl of this sweet potato dessert soup with dried longan counts about 120kcal.

Tips: Please do not over-cook the sweet potatoes as it will become too soft to yield the right texture.
* Cut the sweet potatoes into small cube size makes the cooking faster. It is also easier for the children to chew. Most of all, it looks much more presentable in appearance when served.
* Do simmer the rock sugar together with the sweet potatoes to attain perfect sweetness.