If dollars were only made of elastic. The holiday season means stretching dollars and the Rochester Public Market can help extend your hard-earned coin a little further.

Fresh produce is abundant at the Rochester Public Market — and it’s affordable. While the summer months usually offer a better selection of local produce, winter at the market still offers plenty to fill your basket.

The challenge: Buy the goods to make a hearty winter meal to feed two for under $20. The results? A sweet potato soup sure enough to warm your bones. Check out the ingredient list below and photo essay of the challenge.

Visit rochestercitynewspaper.com for a video on how to make the soup. Note thyme was not used and cooking onions were substituted for shallots. Also, a slight amount of ginger was added to the recipe. The soup’s recipe is vegan. The bread, however, is not.

Ingredients List:

• 12 medium sized sweet potatoes

• Five large carrots for vegetable broth

• Large celery stalk for vegetable broth

• Five cooking onions (Two for soup, three for broth)

• Four heads of garlic

(Four cloves for broth, four cloves for the soup with plenty leftover for your pantry)

• Bundle of ginger (Sparse shaving for soup; plenty leftover for freezer)

On the side

• Loaf of Flour City sourdough bread

• Three parsnips (Roasted for bonus side dish. Not photographed)

Ingredients you probably already have: • Olive oil • Salt & Pepper • Paprika

Every morning at the Rochester Public Market should start with a cup of coffee. We opted for a hot cup of black coffee from Java's. [ $2 ] Garlic is the soul of the soup. It should be used to make the broth and when roasting the sweet potatoes. [ $2 ] Every soup needs a twist. We used ginger to spin this classic winter soup. Plus, we had plenty left over to stick in the freezer for future recipes. Sweet potatoes are the perfect root vegetable to roast and turn into a winter warmer. [ $2 ] Roast your parsnips with some olive oil, salt and pepper for a sweet and savory side dish. A proper carrot gives the foundation to the soup's base, the broth, along with celery, onions and salt and pepper. Garnish the soup with celery leaves and salt and pepper to taste. Warm up your bread [$5] in the oven for a proper dip. We obviously had to make some slight adjustments based on what the public market had available and put our own spin on the recipe. Here is a similar recipe for you to use.