Winter Vegetable Pureed Soup

First of all, I appologize for falling off the radar this week.  But I promise I have a good excuse - I had two teeth extracted on Wednesday and so have been relegated to eating only very soft or liquid foods for the past three days.  I did, however, make a very comforting smooth soup on Wednesday that might be just the thing to cure those wintertime cooking blues.  It would also be great if you are feeling under the weather.  It is so simple but has a great flavor.

Ingredients:
- 1T butter
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 1 large sweet potato (or yam)
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
- 1 medium parsnip, peeled and chopped
- 1 quart chicken stock

Melt the butter in a soup pot and when melted, add the chopped onion.  Allow to cook slowly over medium low heat for a few minutes, until sweet and fragrant. 

I cooked my sweet potato in the oven at 400 degrees (skin on) until soft.  I think this makes for a slightly smoother/creamier consistency than just cooking the sweet potato in the broth.  After the sweet potato is cooked, just slit the skin lenthwise and peel - it should basically just fall right off. 

Add the sweet potato to the onion mixture and mash up.  Add the broth, carrot and parsnip and cook until everything is soft.  Puree either with an immersion blender or in a conventional blender.  Reheat and serve.

I typically like to make my soups very thick and chunky, but this one was an exception.  You can adjust the amount of chicken stock if you want it thicker.  As outlined here, it is thin enough to drink through a straw!