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This vegan Japanese sweet potato soup takes all that natural sweetness, kicks it up with togarashi, ginger, miso, and rice vinegar, and tops the whole bowl with crispy sweet potato tempura strips. This is a pretty iconic autumnal soup to rock out with, and it can all be made in about 45 minutes without a ton of skill.
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Purple skin, pale golden inside, Japanese sweet potato's got a flavor that kinda chestnutty. While you can 100% make this recipe with any random sweet potato, I think this particular variety goes pretty fantastic with the other Japanese ingredients to build a gosh darned skyscraper of flavor.
If you're putting together a whole soup lineup for Thanksgiving, and I really think you should, this one plays great alongside my vegan butternut squash soup, roasted mushroom soup, and vegan acorn squash soup. Give your guests a little tour instead of just one lonely bowl, and let them decide which one deserves seconds.
This is squash soup's shmancier, more well-traveled cousin, the one who studied abroad and came back with better stories and a way more interesting personality.
Another banging recipe, Adam! I'm too lazy to fry tempura, and I probably couldn't handle that much awesomeness, but this recipe totally kicked buns without it. I put most of it in the freezer for a lazier day in the future, before my greedy spoon could make it disappear. Thanks for a new favorite!
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🥰 Why you'll adore this Japanese Sweet Potato Soup
✊ Vegan AF: Dairy and chicken stock did not make the guest list, same as all my vegan soup recipes. Coconut milk and miso showed up instead and are handling the richness just fine on their own, thanks.
🍠 1 Ingredient, 2 Forms: Sweet potato gets blended silky in the soup, then fried crispy on top, same flavor pulling double shifts. Keep it GF by swapping in white rice flour for the wheat flour in the tempura batter, or just skip the topping and let the soup flex solo.
🥢 Umami for Days: Miso and tamari sneak in some serious savory depth that keeps this from tipping over into "basically dessert" territory.
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🍠 Japanese Sweet Potato Soup Ingredients
The Sweet Potatoes
These purple-skinned, golden-on-the-inside beauties are denser, sweeter, and kinda chestnutty compared to the orange sweet potatoes. They pull double duty in this recipe, blended into the soup AND fried into crispy tempura, so do not be shy about buying more than you think you need, because they are pretty great baked and topped with vegan nacho cheese, just sayin'.
If your store is out, garnet yams are the closest stand-in, and jewel yams or plain orange sweet potatoes will still get the job done.
The Miso
White Shiro miso specifically is milder and slightly sweeter than darker misos, which makes it the right call here because it won't fight with the sweet potato for attention, or bury it in saltiness.
Coconut Milk
Full-fat coconut milk is what gives this soup its rich, creamy texture without a single dairy product anywhere within 200 feet of a school zone. Wanna make it even more kweamy? Use coconut cream instead and let this soup get truly extra.
The Sesame Oil
This isn't just cooking oil, it's flavor. Toasted sesame oil brings a deep, nutty aroma right from the first step, and it sets the tone for the whole savory-umami drama going down in this soup.
Shichimi Togarashi
Optional on paper, mandatory in my heart. Shichimi togarashi brings gentle heat, citrus peel, sesame, and a little seaweed funk that pushes this soup from "wait, did you order this from an elite restaurant in heaven?" I've got a full shichimi togarashi recipe on my site if you want to build your own blend at home, but otherwise the Ocean's Halo brand is my fave store-bought one.
Furikake
Some store-bought jars sneak in actual bonito, so check the label if you want to stay vegan (I know you do…). Trader Joe's has a cheap, vegan-safe option that works great, or you can build your own with my furikake recipe and skip the label detective work entirely.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Moroccan Sweet Potato Soup
Want to send your sweet potato soup somewhere completely different? My Moroccan sweet potato soup recipe trades miso and sesame oil for harissa, cardamom, and cinnamon, with chickpeas and kale stirred in and a spicy harissa yogurt swirl on top.
Kabocha Squash Soup
Or if gochujang is more your speed, my kabocha squash soup swaps the sweet potato for kabocha and leans into sweet, spicy Korean insanity instead.
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📖 How to make
Soup, then tempura, in that order, and I cannot stress enough how few of these crispy strips will actually survive the walk from stove to bowl. Follow the steps and tips below, or head to the recipe card if you already know the drill.
Step One
Sesame Street Cred:
Heat the sesame oil in a large pot over medium heat. After 90 seconds when the oil is hot, add the onion and sauté for 6-8 minutes, until translucent.
Step Two
Garls In Charge:
Add the garlic, ginger, white pepper, and shichimi togarashi, if using. Sauté for 2 minutes, stirring frequently so the aromatics sweat instead of burn.
Step Three
Sweet Potadle Tadle Tadle, Potade You Out Of Clay:
Add the sweet potatoes and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20-22 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are completely tender.
Step Four
Miso Impossible:
Pull the pot off the heat and stir in the coconut milk, miso, tamari, and rice vinegar.
Step Five
Blend It Like Beckham:
Transfer the soup to a blender in batches and blend until completely smooth, or use an immersion blender right in the pot if you've got one.
Step Six
Tempura Vida:
For the optional tempura, heat the frying oil in a deep, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat for 5-6 minutes until it hits around 350°F (175°C). Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt, then stir in the ice-cold sparkling water just until a loose batter forms.
Step Seven
Fry Me A River:
Toss the julienned sweet potato into the batter, letting the excess drip off. Once the oil hits 350°F (175°C), add the battered sweet potato one at a time to fry for 2-3 minutes, turning occasionally, until crisp and lightly golden. Move to a wire rack or paper towel-lined plate.
Fry these in a couple of batches so the strips aren't so close that they all stick together.
Step Eight
Let Them Eat Furikake:
Ladle the soup into bowls and top with tempura sweet potato strips, furikake, and scallions.
💡Serving Ideas
For a full Japanese-inspired spread, hook it up with some sunomono on the side, or serve it next to onigiri or yaki onigiri and really commit to the bit.
And for the holidays, if your Thanksgiving table is drowning in the same 4 identical orange soups every single year like it's some kind of tradition nobody questions, this is your out. Serve it with some grilled slices of vegan cornbread or cranberry chestnut puff pastries, and let it be the weird cool cousin nobody expected but everyone talks about afterwards.
Here's your autumnal soup flight: Moroccan sweet potato soup, Japanese sweet potato soup, and chipotle butternut squash soup.
👉Top tips
- Use Ice-Cold Sparkling Water for the Batter: Cold and bubbly batter gets you crispy tempura. Room temp water gets you a soggy, greasy little disappointment nobody invited to the party.
- Do Not Overmix the Tempura Batter: Stir until it barely comes together, lumps and all, then walk away.
- Add the Miso Off the Heat: Stir it in after the pot's off the stove. Boil it and you basically murdered everything good about the miso for no reason. Congrats. You are a cold-blooded monstewww.
- Fry the Tempura Right Before Serving: These go from crispy to sad in about 4 minutes flat, so fry them last, right as the soup's hitting bowls, not while everyone's still arguing about who sits where.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Absolutely, the soup stands totally fine on its own. Top it with just the furikake and scallions if frying isn't in the cards that day, and nobody will feel shortchanged.
The soup base is, as long as your miso and tamari are certified gluten free, since some brands sneak in wheat. The tempura batter uses regular flour, so that part is not gluten free unless you swap in white rice flour or a GF flour blend.
🧊 In the Fridge
Store the soup, without the tempura, in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Fry a fresh batch of tempura each time you serve leftovers.
❄️ In the Freezer
The soup base freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating, and always add fresh tempura topping after reheating, never before.
🔥 Reheating
Warm gently on the stovetop over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, and thin with a little stock if it's thickened up. Add the tempura, furikake, and scallions fresh right before serving.
✌️You'll love these other Autumnal vegan soups:
Japanese Sweet Potato Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 2 cups onion diced
- 4 teaspoons garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon ginger grated
- ½ teaspoon ground white pepper
- 2 ½ teaspoons shichimi togarashi optional
- 2 lbs. Japanese sweet potatoes peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 4 cups unsalted vegetable stock
- 15 oz. canned coconut milk full fat
- 3 tablespoons miso paste
- 1 tablespoon tamari
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
Optional Tempura Sweet Potatoes:
- ½ cup Japanese sweet potato fine julienne cut
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ⅓ cup sparkling water ice-cold
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups canola oil or other neutral frying oil
To Garnish:
- 2 tablespoons furikake
- 2 scallions thinly sliced
Instructions
- Heat the sesame oil in a large pot over medium heat. After 90 seconds when the oil is hot, add the onion and sauté for 6-8 minutes, until translucent.
- Add the garlic, ginger, white pepper, and shichimi togarashi, if using. Continue to sauté for 2 minutes, stirring frequently to sweat the aromatics.
- Add the sweet potatoes and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20-22 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are completely tender.
- Remove the pot from the heat and stir in the coconut milk, miso, tamari, and rice vinegar.
- Transfer the soup to a blender in batches and blend until completely smooth. If you have one, you can use an immersion blender right in the pot instead.
- For the optional tempura sweet potatoes, heat the frying oil in a deep, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. After 5-6 minutes, check the oil temperature; it should be around 350°F (175°C). Meanwhile, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt. Add the ice-cold sparkling water and stir just until a loose batter forms.
- Toss the julienned sweet potato in the batter, allowing excess batter to drip off. After the oil has reached 350°F (175°C), carefully add the battered sweet potato in small batches. Fry for 2-3 minutes, turning occasionally, until crisp and lightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack or paper towel-lined plate.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with tempura sweet potato strips and the furikake and scallions.
Notes
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Stacy says
Another banging recipe, Adam! I'm too lazy to fry tempura, and I probably couldn't handle that much awesomeness, but this recipe totally kicked buns without it. I put most of it in the freezer for a lazier day in the future, before my greedy spoon could make it disappear. Thanks for a new favorite!
Adam Sobel says
Yeeehaw! Psyched to hear ya loved it dear Stacy ✌️