Vegans get excited by sweet pota­toes because life with­out bacon will do that to a person.

Doug McNish is the chef at Raw Aura and a big fan of the potato. He heard I was mak­ing a chow­der for some vegan friends so he sent along this recipe. He uses tahini for added rich­ness and warns that the tahini should not be cooked too long, add it near the end and buzz it in with an emul­sion blender.

Did you know that sweet pota­toes can grow in outer space? Well, sort of. They are also one of the health­i­est foods you can eat.

You can get really hard­core and serve this with gluten-free bread and soy but­ter, but if you do I’ll prob­a­bly have to smack you.

Grab your cojones and your sweet pota­toes and fol­low me to the kitchen.

Sweet Potato and Corn Chowder

Ingredients

6 cups sweet pota­toes skin on

1 small Spanish onion

1–2 car­rots

3 ribs celery

1 red pepper

2 cups frozen corn

1/4 cup tahini

2 cups unsweet­ened soy milk

2 cups water

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp dry mus­tard powder

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp grape­seed oil

chopped fresh dill to garnish

Steps

1. In a medium sauce pan heat the oil and sautee the car­rot, cel­ery, onion and red pep­per until soft­ened.  Add in the gar­lic and mus­tard pow­der and cook for an addi­tional 2–3 min­utes until gar­lic is fragrant.
2. Add in the corn, sweet pota­toes, dill, soy milk and water.  Bring to a sim­mer and cook until the sweet pota­toes are ten­der, about 10–15 minutes.
3. Add in tahini and cook on a gen­tle flame for 2–3 min­utes.  Using an immer­sion blender buzz the soup a few times until roughly one quar­ter of the veg­eta­bles are pureed and the soup reaches a “chow­der” consistency.
4. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.