With an abundance of sweet potatoes, I decided to create a Sweet Potato Soup. There wasn’t much in the refrigerator—no celery, for example—so I added extra onions and garlic. It came out perfectly! Sweet but with enough tang from the cheese and pepper.
 
Sweet Potato Soup
1/4 cup olive oil
2 medium to large onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups water
5 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
Salt and pepper
1 cup cream
1 cup thinly grated BellaVitano® Black Pepper cheese or other hard tangy cheese
 
In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic, stirring occasionally until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Add water, and stir in diced sweet potatoes, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 35-40 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Mash in the pot with a potato masher. (If you want a smoother soup, remove in sections and blend, being careful as contents are very hot.) Add cream, and return to a simmer. Stir in cheese. Serve as soon as soup returns to a simmer. Freezes well.
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I’ve eaten this Sweet Potato Soup twice this week. It was just as good leftover, reheated on the stovetop. Great served with cornbread. Bring on the winter; you’ll be warm and nourished with this hearty, homemade meal.

I did it! I’ve created a gluten-free bread with the taste and overall texture of wheat bread...a quest that has taken me over five years to complete.

If you’ve read the “About Gluten-free and Grateful” section, you’ll know that I stopped eating bread altogether when I found that the store-bought gluten-free bread had a warning to stand by your toaster as “it might incinerate.” The taste was equally dismal.

Then, I bought a wonderful Zojirushi® bread machine*, found a great book, and was reasonably happy until I found that homemade gluten-free breads typically contain two eggs plus two egg whites; and that is more egg than I can tolerate, especially when I want to enjoy my fresh bread for several days in a row. 

A few months ago, I was excited to try a recipe similar to the one below, thrilled that it had no eggs. Unfortunately, it had little loft, wasn’t sweet enough nor salty enough. It needed a little work. Fortunately, that wasn’t too hard. I did have to add an egg—but only one.

I guess I’ve come a long way, because in the past, making up something like bread would have seemed too difficult. And though I love my gluten-free cookbook for the bread machine, the writers strictly caution not to change anything. When I first baked bread in the machine, I was literally fearful of making a mistake. It didn’t help that I’d never used a bread machine before, preferring my wheat bread to be made the old-fashioned way.

The crust on this loaf is excellent, and the inside is soft without being chewy. It has lovely air pockets and a taste enhanced by the sweet potatoes.

Sweet Potato Sandwich Bread
1 egg
1/4 cup oil
1 cup lukewarm water plus 1/2 cup cream (OR, 1 and 1/2 cups of lukewarm milk or milk substitute)
3/4 cup mashed cooked sweet potato 
1 and 3/4 cups sorghum flour
3/4 cup millet flour
1 cup arrowroot starch
3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon xanthan gum
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 and 1/4 teaspoons bread machine yeast OR 1 yeast packet

Blend egg, oil, water, cream, and sweet potatoes and place in a bread machine. Turn on for “wheat dough” cycle (1 hour and 50 minutes). In a medium bowl, mix sorghum flour, millet flour, arrowroot starch, sugar, xanthan gum, salt, and yeast. When the machine begins to churn (22 minutes into the cycle on my machine), quickly add flour mixture until all is incorporated; use a rubber or silicon spatula. 

When cycle finishes, bake for 60 minutes. Test with an instant-read thermometer; gluten-free bread should reach at least 200 degrees when done.

Remove from loaf pan and place on cooling rack. When cool, slice; freeze uneaten slices within two days. Yield: 1 loaf.

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To make it easier to bake this bread on demand, I suggest freezing the 3/4-cup of mashed sweet potato the next time you bake sweet potatoes for dinner. That’s what I did; just thaw before using.

I’m not sure this loaf will make it to my freezer. I’ve already eaten three pieces—the thinnest slice from the end...so tasty! And two slices with my dinner of homemade Cream of Mushroom Soup. I see toast in my future.

 *Note: No compensation was made for the use of this brand name.