Cuban Sweet Potato Cream Soup (Crema de Boniato)
Boiled Cuban white sweet potato is blended with a garlicky sofrito and broth into a silky, pale gold soup, finished with a splash of sherry and crisp fried garlic. Comforting, gently sweet and deeply savory all at once.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Peel and cube the boniato
Peel the boniato with a knife or vegetable peeler, cutting away all the skin and any dark spots. The flesh oxidizes fast, like a potato, so drop the cubes into a bowl of cold water as you cut them to keep them pale. Cut into even 3 cm pieces so they all cook at the same speed.
- 1 kg boniato
✅ Done when: all the cubes are evenly sized and fully submerged in water
Boil until tender
Drain the soaking water and put the boniato in a large pot. Cover with the 2 litres of water, add the salt, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered until a knife slides through with no resistance. Keep the starchy cooking water nearby; you'll use some of it to adjust the final texture.
- 1 kg boniato (from step 1)
- 2 litres water
- 1 tsp salt
✅ Done when: a knife or fork goes through the cubes with no resistance, about 20 minutes
Make the sofrito
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Blend until silky
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Simmer and season
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Serve warm
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Peel and cube the boniato
Peel the boniato with a knife or vegetable peeler, cutting away all the skin and any dark spots. The flesh oxidizes fast, like a potato, so drop the cubes into a bowl of cold water as you cut them to keep them pale. Cut into even 3 cm pieces so they all cook at the same speed.
- 1 kg boniato
✅ Done when: all the cubes are evenly sized and fully submerged in water
Boil until tender
Drain the soaking water and put the boniato in a large pot. Cover with the 2 litres of water, add the salt, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer uncovered until a knife slides through with no resistance. Keep the starchy cooking water nearby; you'll use some of it to adjust the final texture.
- 1 kg boniato (from step 1)
- 2 litres water
- 1 tsp salt
✅ Done when: a knife or fork goes through the cubes with no resistance, about 20 minutes
Make the sofrito
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Blend until silky
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Simmer and season
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Serve warm
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The Story Behind the Dish
Boniato, a starchy white-fleshed sweet potato native to the Caribbean, was already a staple food for the Taino long before Spanish colonization. Cuban home cooks folded it into cocina criolla, the island's everyday cooking, pairing it with the sofrito of onion, pepper and garlic that flavors nearly every savory dish on the table.
Crema de boniato became a favorite starter in mid-century Havana restaurants, part of a wider taste for European-style cream soups, and it traveled with Cuban families to Miami and beyond, where it still opens many a Cuban restaurant menu today.
⭐ Why It's Famous
Its velvety texture and gentle, earthy sweetness, rounded out by garlic and a touch of sherry, make it one of Cuba's most comforting first courses.
💡 Fun Fact
Boniato is sometimes labeled 'Cuban sweet potato' in markets abroad, but it's a different variety from the common orange sweet potato — paler, drier and less sweet, which is exactly why it makes such a silky, not-too-sugary soup.
Havana and across Cuba
23.11°N, -82.37°W
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