Naturally sweetening with Roasted Squash Soup

I had a conversation with someone recently about one of my sweet potato soup recipes. The feedback was the soup didn’t taste very sweet and was a little tasteless. When I started asking questions, I realised that the sweet potato used was quite white inside and sounded under ripe. One of the best things about root vegetables is that they are naturally sweet, however sometime we might buy them a little under ripe or when they are not at their sweetest. So what can we do?

I had the same experience the other day when I got some spaghetti squash in my vegetable box. Rather than throw them away, I decide to sweeten them myself. When you look at root vegetables and the colour is a little pale and the flesh very hard, it can mean it’s under ripe.

To get around this, the best thing to do is roast them in the oven, with a little oil and seasoning. The baking will bring out the natural sweetness of the veggies and then enhance the taste of the soup. You can also add additional sweetness by sprinkling on a little cinnamon or a little honey/maple syrup.

Also, remember that buying root vegetables locally and when they are season (during the winter months) can also help reduce likelihood of this happening.