This savory-sweet soup is perfect for chilly days! This pear and sweet potato soup is light, creamy, and immensely satisfying.
Darlings, this has to be one of the best truly seasonal fall soup recipes there is. The flavor has a lovely, earthy balance of savory and sweet. It’s like summer’s kisses you farewell as you slip into the all things cozy for fall. I love that even with the addition of the pears, it’s not a particularly sweet soup. It’s the kind of soup that feels old fashioned and new all at once and everyone loves it! My whole family enjoyed it, and I hope yours will too!
The flavor kind of reminds me of butternut squash or pumpkin soup. I spent a good amount of time thinking about how to describe this soup, because having a fruit in soup immediately makes people think it’s sweet like dessert. And while there are absolutely some amazing sweet soups out there, this doesn’t fit that category.
In fact, the first time the Godfather and I sampled this soup flavor was at a tea house! One of our favorite date ideas is going out for tea. Last year, we went to a lovely little shop in Palm Beach. Their soup of the day was a sweet potato and pear. We tried it and it was instant love!
I actually started working on a recipe last year because it was so good! But by the time the recipe was just where I liked it, the season for posting on the blog felt like it had passed. So I’m sharing this year instead! Honestly, any reason to make this soup is good for me, haha.
The recipe is relatively quick and easy to make. From-scratch soups can feel like they take a good amount of time, but this one is ready in under an hour. The longest part of the cooking is waiting for the potatoes to boil. I cut down on cooking time by cutting my potatoes into smaller cubes that cook faster. I also use an immersion blender to blend the soup right in the pot. It’s much easier than waiting for the soup to cool some and using my bigger blender.
That, and if you accidentally put too much hot soup in the big blender, it explodes all over your kitchen! I am not a patient cook, darlings, so this has happened to me several times. It’s the primary reason I keep an immersion blender, to be honest. No more waiting for soup to cool!
A few pear and sweet potato soup recipe notes…
First of all, I love how this soup, for all it’s fancy-sounding flavor, is mostly pantry staples. I love making it in the fall when both pears and sweet potatoes are in season. But even if you want to make it another time, you can sub canned pears (rinse them to remove the extra sugar).
It’s also a great recipe to make if you want a dairy-free creamy soup. This butternut squash soup is also dairy-free if you’re looking. Just use olive oil instead of the butter.
If you need a vegetarian or vegan-friendly soup option, use vegetable broth! The recipe just lists “broth” because any will do nicely. And if you don’t have broth, use water. You might need to increase the seasoning a little, but the soup will still taste good.
Finally, because this soup isn’t dairy-based, it freezes well! I split the last batch I made and froze half. About a month later, we needed a quick dinner and so I thawed the soup. The texture was just as good as the day I made it! Hooray for batch cooking!
This fall soup pairs beautifully with a piece of nice crusty bread. And if you really want to lean into the whole pear theme, be sure to check out the recipe for this pear upside-down pie. It makes a lovely dessert! Enjoy, darlings!
Pear and Sweet Potato Soup
This savory-sweet soup is perfect for chilly days! This pear and sweet potato soup is light, creamy, and immensely satisfying. This soup is freezer friendly, dairy-free, and vegan-friendly!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2-2.5 pounds sweet potatoes (about 3), peeled and cubed
- 3 pears (see notes), peeled and cubed
- 5 cups broth (chicken or vegetable) or water
- 1 cup white cooking wine
- 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
- salt, to taste
Instructions
- In a large stockpot, melt the butter or heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook for 5 minutes until translucent.
- Add the sweet potatoes to the pot and the broth. Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Lower the temperature, cover the pot, and simmer for 10-15 minutes until the potatoes are mostly cooked.
- Add the pears, thyme, salt, and wine and simmer an additional 10 minutes until the pears are tender and the potatoes are completely cooked through.
- Use an immersion blender to puree the soup in the pot. If you don't have an immersion blender, work in small batches to carefully puree the soup in a standard blender.
- Adjust the seasonings as needed and serve. To garnish as shown in the photos add a tiny drizzle of heavy cream (coconut milk if dairy-free) and a bit of olive oil. Serve warm!
- Leftover, cooled soup can be stored in the refrigerator up to one week or frozen up to two months.
Notes
- If you need to make this soup dairy-free, use olive oil. To make it also vegan-friendly, use vegetable broth or water for the broth.
- Orange sweet potatoes (yams) or white sweet potatoes (boniato) would work.
- The type of pear is up to you. Anjou is what I typically use, but bosc would work too.
- You may use a dry drinking wine like chardonnay in this recipe. If you don't drink and don't want to open a bottle of wine you have 2 options. The first is to purchase a cooking wine - located near the vinegar in the grocery store. Or you may omit the wine and replace with 3/4 cup broth and the juice of one lemon. This will help the flavors really pop!
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
