Pumpkin Peanut Butter Soup

I'd love to take credit for this one, but a friend emailed me a link from Chef In You to this recipe when I had a wierd urge to make something with peanut butter and pumpkin. This soup is simple, healthy and thick and DELICIOUS. It is now one of my favourite things...made some fresh cheese rolls to have with it and even J, who is Mr. Meh when it comes to soup, loved it. I doubled the recipe and had a few yummy easy lunches for later in the week.
I'm reposting the recipe in case the link goes away (it would be tragic):
1 c pumpkin puree
1 medium sweet potato
1/4 c peanut butter
1 T butter
~1-2 cups vegetable stock or water (to thicken to desired consistancy. I used 1 1/2)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Chop up the sweet potato roughly and steam until soft. Blend it into a puree. In a pan, melt the butter in low heat, then add potatoes, pumpkin and peanut butter. Add the stock/water and seasoning. Stir until it becomes smooth and well blended. Cook for about 10 minutes. Enjoy. :)

Cauliflower and apples? Together in a soup? You're Mad! MAD I tell you!

I love soup. My mum made it almost every day when I was growing up and she makes the best homemade soup. To me, in the winter a big bowl of thick soup is the perfect thing to make you feel content. The January issue of Vegetarian Times had a bunch of great cream-free thick & yummy soup recipes in it. I've already made the Kabocha soup from this issue and it was insanely good, so I thought I'd try another one:

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Hey! Where are you going?
Stop sneaking off - come back here...it really is fantastic. It's also super easy to make, low fat and healthy too-even gluten free! Honest...try it out and you'll see.

Here's all you need:
2 T olive oil
1 small onion chopped (~1 cup)
1 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped (~1 cup)
1T curry powder
1 or 2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 large head of cauliflower, chopped into 1 inch pieces (~ 6 cups)
4 c low sodium vegetable broth (I use McCormick's vegetable bullion cubes - they rock)
1 t honey (or agave nectar if you have it)
1 t rice wine vinegar (apple cider vinegar will do in a pinch)
Pinch of salt (if you think it needs it)

In a large pot, over medium-high heat, heat oil and saute onions 5-7 minutes until soft and turning golden. Don't burn them...the slow browning adds flavour. Stir in apple, curry, garlic and cook 2 more minutes. Add vegetable broth and cauliflower and bring to a strong simmer, stirring all the yumminess off the bottom of the pot. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Cool 20 minutes.
Blend soup in food processor in batches until it is smooth. Add the honey and vinegar and a pinch of salt. Enjoy.

This soup grows in flavour as it sits, so it's even better the next day.
The first time I made it I didn't quite puree the soup enough, so it almost had the consistency of cream of wheat, but man...it still tasted delicious!
Try this out - it's a bit unconventional, but it's amazing, and a pot makes enough soup for 3 or 4 lunches - how perfect is that? I had yummy soup for lunch all week. Score!

Kabocha!

A friend gave me some squash from her garden this fall. There is an advantage to having a friend on an acreage...lots of yummy veggies in the fall.

I still had two huge kabocha squash sitting in my pantry staring at me every time I opened the door. One was about 6 Lb and bigger than my head! They are yummy flavourful winter squash -sweet and nutty...like a cross between and acorn squash and a yam. Apparently after you pick them they're supposed to have a few weeks to mature and get more flavourful before you eat them...heh heh. No problem there. I've had mine a few months now :)

I was wondering what the hell to do with it this weekend when I opened the mail and found this month's Vegetarian Times in it...and on the cover was a picture of their recipe for Kabocha squash soup. And it had smoked paprika in it, which is one of my new favourite things. Score! This magazine is usually full of yummy recipes and this soup was definitely no exception-I used half my gargantuan squash to make a double batch of soup and froze the rest of the squash for another soup session. It was so simple and yummy I must post the recipe, giving full credit to the folk's at Vegetarian Times.

Kabocha Soup

1 c thin sliced white onion (~ 1 medium onion)
1 T olive oil
1 bay leaf
2 T cooking sherry
2 cloves garlic
2 t smoked paprika
~1 1/2 Lb peeled kabocha squash, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 c water
2 c low sodium veggie broth
Pinch salt
pepper to taste

Saute the onions and oil in a large saucepan for 5-7 minutes, add the garlic and saute another few minutes. Add the paprika and bay leaf and saute another minute. Add sherry, water, broth and squash and bring to a simmer on low-med heat. Let simmer with lid on for ~30 minutes until squash is softened/cooked. Add pinch of salt and pepper, fish out the bay leaf and puree the soup in a food processor. Add pepper to taste and enjoy. Easy and delicious.