hearty sweet potato & cinnamon soup

I love soup. Riggs loves soup. Steve's gone a lot. So we have a lot of soup around this house.

When I say soup, I'm not talking about something that comes from a can, either. I'm talking about hearty, homemade soup with lots of veggies and mouth-watering flavor. Mmm, so good!

Often I don't use a recipe, I just whip together whatever we have. We always have onion, carrots and celery around - the base to pretty much any soup. Earlier this week I was in the mood for a hearty soup, and I had some left over cabbage and spinach from dying the easter eggs last week that I wanted to use up too. It turned out so good, especially with a little parmesan cheese to top it off.

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Hearty Sweet Potato Cinnamon Soup
serves 4

2 TBS oil (I use organic unrefined extra virgin coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil would also work great)
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped (leaves too if there are any)
2 medium carrots, chopped
2 cups chopped red cabbage
1 russet potato, cubed (I leave the peel on, you can peel it if you want)
6 cups vegetable broth
1.5-2 cups sweet potato chunks (or these sweet potato puffs from Alexia)
1 can red kidney beans
1-2 cups spinach
1 tsp cinnamon
salt & pepper to taste
parmesan cheese

1 | heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, I add a little salt while oil is heating to take away any coconut flavor. add onions, celery and carrots and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.
2 | add cabbage to the onion mixture and cook down until starting to wilt. add potato cubes and cook about 3-5 minutes.

3 | in a medium soup pot, add vegetable stock and start heating over medium-high heat. add onion mixture to broth.

4 | add beans and sweet potatoes, then cover and simmer until broth thickens a bit, about 30 minutes.

5 | add cinnamon and spinach, stir until spinach is incorporated. let sit about 15 minutes before serving. add parmesan to each serving and enjoy!

ps - I just made this up as I went, so feel free to tweak this to fit your family's needs. I love soup!