November, 2011: This candied yam bisque courtesy of Redemption New Orleans has got to be the most luscious, decadently delicious way to prepare sweet potatoes ever invented. Served piping hot and garnished with candied pecans and a pile of fresh scallions, its heady blend of fall colors and flavors would make a spectacular start to any Thanksgiving dinner.

Indeed, it might just upstage your turkey.

Besides tracking down a couple of specialty ingredients (tamarind, lavender flowers), there was nothing terribly hard about making this soup so long as you have plenty of time. And a large stock pot. This recipe makes enough to feel twelve - heroically - so either halve the recipe or break out the biggest pans in your possession. The key to unlocking all the delicious flavors is to build your soup gradually, sautéing one vegetable on top of the previous in a big cast-iron dutch oven so the flavor of each gets time to develop properly. This also gives you time to chop each vegetable while the previous one is cooking. We omitted the lavender flowers (couldn't find them), but nevertheless, once the spices went in the aroma rising from the pot was a thing of beauty.

One last thing: We were glad to have our immersion blender once we got to the purée-ing part, since it's much easier to blend the soup right in the stockpot instead of decanting batches into a food processor. But however you do your blending, the resulting velvety, richly colored concoction—redolent with fruity flavor and exotic spices—looked beautiful on the table. A fabulous fall feast, any way you look at it. Get the Recipe Here

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