Cold Weather Soups
When the weather gets chilly, a hot bowl of soup is downright heartening. If I want something quick and delicious, there’s a crab soup made entirely from stuff in cans that’s so quick, easy, and delicious that I try always to have the ingredients in the pantry. Just take a can of Campbell’s tomato soup and a can of split pea, add a little less water than the labels call for. At this point you’ve made a puree mongol. Heat almost to boiling, then throw in a can of crab meat, stir and serve. If you like, you can add a tiny pat of butter or a spoon of sour cream. (This soup is good when unexpected but welcome guests show up.)
But my favorite cold weather soups are a bit more elaborate (and not as laden with sodium). I don’t have an exact recipe, but here’s one I started last night and finished this afternoon, a roasted pumpkin and apple soup. (Don’t think of pumpkin pie, though. A pumpkin without the cinnamon and cloves is just another kind of winter squash).
Sample ingredients
1 small pumpkin
1 large white onion
2 celery stalks
2 small apples
1 bell pepper
1 half stick unsalted butter
mild vegetable oil (grapeseed, canola, etc.)
chicken broth or stock
apple juice (Martinelli’s)
2 garlic cloves
2 beef bouillon cubes
seasonings, as the spirit moves you
Start with a pumpkin about half the size of a basketball. Cut it in half vertically. (I use a big knife, start cutting it by hand, then tap the blade down through the pumpkin with a rubber mallet, thus lowering the chance of amputating a finger or hand).
Remove the fiber and seeds at the center. Put half the seeds in a colander, the other in a sauce pan with the fiber. You’ll toast the seeds that are in the colander, make a stock out of the rest. (Add water and simmer for an hour or so.)
Put the pumpkin halves cut side down on a cookie sheet and allow to roast about 50 minutes at 350ºF. Wash the seeds in the colander, drain, put them in an oven-proof dish and stick them in the oven about 10 minutes to dry. Then add a bit of salt and some cooking oil—I use grapeseed oil--and return to oven, stirring every 4 or 5 minutes until they are toasted to a medium brown.
Turn off the oven and let the roasted pumpkin and toasted seeds sit overnight.
Pull the skin from the pumpkin flesh. Put the roasted pumpkin in a food processor with some chicken stock, puree it, and set it aside. Meanwhile cut up 1 large white onion, two celery stalks, two small apples peeled and cored, and a bell pepper. Melt half a stick of unsalted butter in a soup pot, add the vegetables, and saute for about half an hour. Puree the vegetables and return to the pot, together with the pureed pumpkin. Thin the soup to desired consistency. You can probably use water, but I like a mixture of chicken broth and apple juice. (Martinelli’s is by far the best!) And of course you also use the pumpkin seed and fiber stock, poured through a sieve to remove the solids.
Seasoning? It varies. Today I used a couple of beef bouillon cubes, a teaspoon of ground cardamon, salt, pepper, and a tablespoon of lime juice. Continue cooking the soup over low heat, and serve with a garnish of toasted pumpkin seeds. I also something drizzle a bit of Austrian pumpkin seed oil (not cheap!) on top.
The variations on this recipe are almost endless. You can add another kind of winter squash, say butternut. You can also add a roasted or baked or microwaved sweet potato.
I like a bit of chipotle pepper or cayenne added to the soup for a little zing. The zest of an orange is also good. Sometimes I add some garlic to the vegetables before sauteing them.
Some light cream alters the texture.
I may double or triple the recipe, then freeze much of the soup for quick use later on.
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"It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in an argument." William Gibbs McAdoo. US Vice-President under Woodrow Wilson.
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