This slow cooker sweet potato soup is thick, creamy, and flavored with a delicious blend of dried herbs and smoky spices for a cozy and satisfying fall dinner recipe. This dairy-free soup has easy slow cooker prep - just add ingredients to the crockpot and turn it on!
Fall (or...pre-fall, as it stands this year) seems to be orange soup season in my house, between batches of roasted butternut squash soup, the curried carrot soup I've been working on after obsessing over it at a local café, and shooting new photos of this oldie but goodie: slow cooker sweet potato soup.
First posted nine years ago, I've updated and tweaked this recipe based on the changes I've incorporated over the years. Namely I used more broth, added support veggies, and zhushed the seasonings. What results is a similarly thick and luxe texture, complex and slightly smoky flavor, and simple cooking method.
Recipe Ingredients
- Sweet Potatoes: Three pounds of sweet potatoes are used here, which generally amounts to four large sweet potatoes or nine heaping cups of 1-inch cubes.
- Broth: Reduced-sodium is my pick to keep that level in check. Either vegetable or chicken broth/stock work well with these flavors depending upon your preferences.
- Onion, Carrots, Celery: Sweet potatoes aren't exactly a flavor powerhouse by themselves, so the classic soup trifecta of onion, carrot, and celery helps to add subtle sweetness and round out the flavor. These can be chopped into larger pieces (not diced) because everything gets blended at the end.
- Spices: Beyond salt and pepper, this sweet potato soup benefits by savory dried herbs (rubbed sage, thyme, and a bay leaf), sweet and smoked paprikas, and garlic powder. There's also freshly grated ginger, in which I used a freeze-dried fresh ginger substitute in the batch I photographed here. Both measurements are given in the recipe card below.
- Coconut Milk: This is added at the end to provide creaminess and a complementary flavor. Either full- or reduced-fat coconut milk can be used according to your preference.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Prep Ingredients
Chop the sweet potatoes, onion, carrot, and the celery rib, then add the ginger and all of the dried seasonings. Pour in the broth, but leave the coconut milk out for now - that will get added at the end.
Slow Cook
Cook on high heat for 4 hours or low heat for about 6 hours. It's hard to land on an exact time as all slow cooker models have their quirks, but you want to cook until a fork or metal skewer is able to be inserted easily into the largest piece of sweet potato.
Blend
Either immersion blend everything until smooth right in your slow cooker, or carefully transfer batches to a stand blender and blend in that way. Once the soup is pureed, stir in the coconut milk, adjust any seasonings you like, and serve.
Serving Suggestions
After blending, take a taste and see if you'd like to add more coconut milk for a creamier sweet potato soup - you'll have some leftover from the can. Taste for salt and see if you'd like to spice things up, either through a drizzle of hot sauce or stirring in ground cayenne or ancho chile powder.
Next: pureed soups are begging for fun toppings! Here are some of my favorite ways to serve a smooth soup for extra heft:
- Roasted salted sunflower seeds or pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
- Fresh herbs such as sage or thyme
- A drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil, hot sauce, sriracha
- Croutons! Hearty oven-baked croutons, air fryer croutons, cornbread croutons...you name it, I haven't met a crouton I haven't liked on soup.
- Fresh crusty bread or honey cornbread on the side
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- Slow Cooker Size: The absolute minimum slow cooker capacity for this recipe is 4.5-quarts (round up to the 4.5 liter size on international models).
- Blending: If using a stand blender, be careful not to overfill it over the maximum liquid capacity for your model. Overfilling is a burn risk as hot soup splatters can fly out.
- Variations: As written this soup is dairy-free, but modifications can be made as follows:
- Vegetarian/Vegan: Use vegetable broth or stock.
- Lower Fat: Use lite coconut milk.
- Avoiding Coconut Milk: Replace with heavy cream, also adding it at the end. Start with a smaller amount, around one-third cup or so, before seeing if you'd like more. Heavy cream has considerably more fat than an equal amount of full-fat coconut milk.
Related Recipes
If you’ve enjoyed this recipe, I’d love for you to leave a star rating in the recipe card and/or a comment review below!
Slow Cooker Sweet Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 3 pounds sweet potatoes peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes (see note)
- 6 cups reduced-sodium vegetable or chicken broth
- 1 medium onion chopped into 1 to 1 ½-inch pieces
- 1 medium carrot chopped into 1 to 1 ½-inch pieces
- 1 rib celery chopped into 1 to 1 ½-inch pieces
- 1 Tablespoon freshly-grated ginger root or 1 ½ teaspoons freeze-dried
- ¾ teaspoon rubbed sage or ¼ teaspoon ground sage
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme leaves or a pinch of ground thyme
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon sweet paprika
- Pinch of ground cinnamon
- 1 large bay leaf
- ¾ cup canned coconut milk regular or lite (not a refrigerated carton)
Instructions
- Place all ingredients except for the coconut milk into the insert of a slow cooker with a minimum capacity of 4.5 quarts (larger is even better). Cover and cook on high heat for 4 hours or about 6 hours on low. The vegetables should be tender and a utensil will easily slide through without meeting resistance.
- Remove and discard the bay leaf, then puree the soup using an immersion blender if you have one, but if you don't, carefully transfer the entire contents of the slow cooker into a blender and puree that way. Work in batches so the blender isn't overfilled and hot soup splatters out.
- Stir the coconut milk into the soup and taste for seasoning - add more salt if needed, try a little cayenne or ancho chile powder for heat, more coconut milk, etc.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as an estimate. As it can vary due to many factors (brands used, quantities, etc.), we cannot guarantee its accuracy.
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Rachel @ Bakerita says
I haven't been using my slow cooker nearly enough the fall, especially considering all the gorgeous recipes being posted! I'm loving this soup and it's SO cold out right now, I wish I had a big bowl to dig into!
Annie says
You are braver than I am! I can't let Clayton go to the grocery with me...he pushes the cart into displays and puts 7 packages of bacon in the cart! 😉 haha!
This sweet potato soup looks amazing! I love the smokey flavors!
Alyssa says
Hahaha I deal with a little of that as well. 😉 We'll get to the check-out and I'll go "hmmm, where did that come from?" Also routinely I go off in the aisles looking for one thing, end up loading my arms with unplanned purchases, and spend 5-10 minutes searching for Brian and the cart. All the while hoping and praying I don't drop anything. Every time!
Jess @ Flying on Jess Fuel says
This sounds so good! I've had butternut soup and pumpkin soup, but I don't think I've ever had sweet potato soup! Sounds awesome! And I love how easy it is in the crock pot. 🙂
Alyssa says
Thanks Jess! I love all of those orange fall soups - thought sweet potato was next up!:)
Ashley says
haha my husband can't come with me to the grocery store - when he does we end up with sooooo much extra snacking stuff!!
This soup sounds amazinggg. I am always looking for new ways to use sweet potatoes and with the smoked paprika? Yes yes!
Alyssa says
Hahaha we definitely have some unplanned purchases, but I appreciate the help! Thanks Ashley!
marcie says
I love sweet potato soup, and making it in the slow cooker makes it extra easy! This sounds delicious with the smoky flavors and coconut milk!
Alyssa says
Thanks Marcie! I think I'm beginning an obsession with slow cooker soups. They're just too easy!
Nostramomous says
This soup is the picture of fall! Yum. Great job Alyssa !
Alyssa says
Thank you! 🙂
Rebecca @ Strength and Sunshine says
Mmm the thicker the soup the better for me! And of course anything smoky!
Basically all my grocery money and space in the fridge is take by all the produce 😛 My mom gets mad, but really? That's what we should all be eating!
Alyssa says
Haha I agree, Rebecca! Or at least that's how I justify the higher produce bill, too. 🙂