Cook with an ingredient you don't usually use.
As soon as I saw this month's challenge, I knew my fate was sealed.
Despite assiduously avoiding it for decades, my time had finally come.
There was no getting out of it.
No excuse would suffice.
Yes, that's right. I would finally have to conquer my extreme aversion to squash soup.
The mere thought of pumpkin, butternut or acorn pureed in a bowl made me gag.
Literally.
But I stealed myself for the inevitable horror, found a recipe, and assembled the ingredients.
I was prepared for a lot fruitless work, making soup that no one would eat, save the obligatory first bite.
Sigh.
There's always pizza delivery, right?
Was I ever pleasantly surprised!
I made Corn, Bean and Pumpkin Stew, using local beans, home canned tomatoes, home frozen sweet corn, local onions and garlic, and a pureed butternut squash from our garden. The squash was supposed to be prepared in cubes, but I found using my already pureed squash worked just fine. The soup was nicely spiced with cumin, oregano, cinnamon, cloves, paprika and serrano chilies.
The perfect accompaniment to the soup was corn meal and currant scones topped with homemade apple butter. The cornmeal and flour were local and I used currants my girls and I dried last summer from our fruit CSA.
Finally, for dessert, my daughter made this yellow cake using the first two eggs our chickens ever laid. Quite exciting!
I stand humbled and chagrined by my former aversion to squash soups.
Next up, borscht.
(Gag, gag)
1 comment:
YES!!! A convert! I am one too - like you the thought of soups with winter squash had me in shivers for a long time. I did it a few weeks ago to use up some random bits of winter squash that were on their last legs... and like you, I used the cumin, paprika, and peppers along with black beans, onion, garlic... yep, good stuff :-) I love your ideas for accompanying the meal. How do you make your cornmeal scones?
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