Soup as gorgeous as Autumn leaves

[Hekate]

Ten years ago my mother sent me her new favorite recipe cut from the paper, something called Winter Larder Stew. I made it in her honor when she came to my house the night before Thanksgiving that year, and she spent the entire meal complaining about it until my brother finally took her away, asking me if I honestly wanted to spend the next three days like that. When it came to me she was kind of a holy terror, sad to say.

She really was a terrific cook, however. My younger sis got the full-on cooking DNA from her. What I got was the soup gene. I love making soups.

I liked that recipe, regardless, and made it my own. I make it every year; Mr. H loves it, my Moon Circle ate it up. I use more or less of the ingredients to taste--usually more butternut squash. I didn't have real saffron at first, so I got something called Mexican Saffron instead, which tastes different. A teaspoon of chili powder can be substituted for the pinch of cayenne. I tweaked the spices.... Homemade chicken stock out of my freezer tastes *way* better than the original canned broth that was called for. Finally, "Winter Larder" is much too bleak a name for something that comes out as colorful as a bowlful of flaming Autumn leaves, so I now just call it

AUTUMN SOUP

3 T olive oil
2 C coarsely chopped onions
2 T fresh minced garlic
2 sliced red bell peppers, or frozen Tri-Color Bell Peppers for extra color
1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled and diced
1/3 C fresh parsley, chopped
2 cans stewed or crushed tomatoes, undrained
2 cans garbanzo beans, drained
1 quart home made chicken stock or broth, more as needed
1/4 tsp crumbled saffron
1 T honey
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp coriander

Get out that big heavy pot, like the cast iron Dutch oven, and wilt the onions in olive oil over low heat for 10 minutes. Add the garlic in the last 2 minutes. Add the saffron last, stir one minute.

Stir in the peppers and squash. Cook over low heat 15 minutes, stir occasionally.

Add all the spices and other ingredients at this point. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook covered until the squash is tender, about 15 minutes.

Uncover, cook 10 minutes more over medium heat.

Serve all by itself on a cold gray day, or with a hearty loaf of bread and sharp cheddar. Smile. :9

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I have GOT to stay away from GD and GDP and just hang out here. This is the best I've felt in quite awhile. :D

Hekate

[lizerdbits]

1. I will have to try this, it sounds good

I cook for 1 so I'll probably cut it in half. I love butternut squash, with a bonus of peppers. :9

[TreasonousBastard]

2. That is very close to the pumpkin soup I made last year...

no tomatoes, saffron, or curry powder, but lots of different squashes, including acorn and cheese pumpkins. And, yeah, peppers for color and garbanzos for whatever it is that garbanzos add to soups and stews.

And sour cream and potato flour to thicken it up. Probably some cinnamon and ginger, too, and other spices I tend to throw in things just because they're there.

(I rarely follow recipes blindly and never make notes-- faults that haunt me later when trying to remember what I did)

Anyway, two variations on a most excellent theme-- squash soup. I would assume your version was devoured as greedily as mine was.

BTW, I made a couple of gallons of the stuff for a huge church Thanksgiving dinner, and found a monstrous big pumpkin to hollow out and serve it in-- the presentation was appreciated as much as the soup.

[Hekate]

3. Okay, now you HAVE to come up with a better list of the ingredients than that!

Just give me an approximation, and I'll take it from there. Please? :9 I may try the hollow punkin for next time I take something to a potluck.

I forgot to mention that I sometimes put a big dollop of whole-milk yogurt on top. I think the garbanzos are probably for the protein that beans can provide if you combine them with something else like cheese/yogurt/whole wheat bread. This thing is a meal in a bowl.

The only times I've been served pumpkin soup, it's been pureed. That part makes it easy -- just open a can and go sploop. I've therefore tried it at home in both sweet and savory variations, but frankly, my favorite soups have big identifiable chunks of things in them. I'll look for a cooking pumpkin so I can try yours out.

Some go for the creamy texture, though. I made Autumn Soup for my sis when she visited me last fall, and at a certain point she said, "Oh you put it in the blender at this point?" I was horrified and said that it would lose all its character if I did that. I had forgotten that her family won't eat lumpy stuff, so she's perfected creamy soups. Meh. She like this one, though. OTOH, she cooked her way through Julia Child's books early on, which I have never even tried.

Hekate

[TreasonousBastard]

4. OK, I'm trying to remember...

Homemade chicken stock (because I always have some and it's salt-free) Thicken that with flour if you must, but instant potato (or mashed potatoes if you have them around) makes for a heartier soup. Most pumpkin soup I've seen has a clear broth, but I love cream soups-- none of that watery stuff around here in cold weather.

Cut up squashes and pumpkins. Don't know what all they were-- just went to the farm stands and grabbed stuff that looked good. Acorns and cheese pumpkins are my personal favorites so they go in, but there were others. Some chunks I threw in early so they would kinda dissolve, others I threw in later so they would keep their shape. Maybe I did puree some of them. And those garbanzos.

Julienned fresh green and red peppers, and some cut up pimentos (roasted red peppers) from a jar.

Cayenne and/or paprika and a couple of well cut up chiles to wake it up. At the time, not enough to scare off the blue-haired ladies, though.

Very little salt-- just enough to bring out some flavor. Many people noticed the lack of excessive salt and thanked me for it. (Possibly a little soy sauce for the salt)

Parsley, basil, black pepper, cinnamon, and ginger for sure. Probably some cumin and thyme, and maybe a bay leaf or two. I don't overspice, so none of these were really tasted, but they all add a little something.

Probably had some ground up roasted pumpkin/squash seeds in there, too-- let nothing go to waste.

Last thing in is the sour cream. Yogurt would also work. I may have dumped in some heavy cream, too.

(I'm gonna make this again, and make NOTES!)

[Hekate]

5. Oh my. That sounds like Heaven. Tomorrow I go looking for members of the Squash family...

... to sacrifice on my stove.

Hekate

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Ahh... the sacrificial squash-- they're hitting the...

stands here now and I have money in my pocket.

Butternuts and acorns-- BEWARE!

At first I missed the part in you post where you said something about opening a can of pumpkin (or maybe I blocked it from my mind). I trust you realize that it's not at all difficult to deal with real pumpkins and squash and that canned pumpkin is an abomination? Besides, those big orange Halloween pumpkins in that can don't really have much taste-- there's decoratin' punkins and there's eatin' punkins.

Even in May, the pumpkin chunks from the proper eatin' punkins frozen in the fall and sitting happily in the bottom of the freezer will avoid any need for canned pumpkin no matter how desperate some in the family might be for a fresh pumpkin pie.

[Hekate]

8. All I have to do is find the punks that are worth eating, & I have no fear of the seeds & strings.

Since I am blessed with year-round herbs, this is one of my faves:

Garlic-Rosemary Squash, almost any kind at all

Preheat oven to whatever temp you like for squash (325 to 400)
Slice squash and remove seeds
Slather with olive oil
Rub in garlic powder, salt, and pepper
Lay a generous sized sprig of fresh rosemary the length of the squash if long, or curled inside if round
Lay cut side down on baking sheet
Bake anywhere from 15 to 80 minutes, depending on the kind of squash and the heat of the oven, until tender

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[TreasonousBastard]

9. Excellent! I roast them, too, and will try...

adding the rosemary next time, but one of my favorite ways to do acorns, if I have the time, is to split them in half and stuff them. Those cans of pink salmon I have lying around come in handy for things like that.

Oh, and I just passed the pantry and saw a can of coconut milk-- that was another ingredient in the squash soup. A necessary one, I think.

[Beacool]

6. Sounds delicious!!

Thanks for sharing the recipe.