Sweet Potato/Butternut Squash Soup

One thing they say about Indiana is “Indiana is the state where you can have all the different kinds of weather in a period of 1 week.” This is so true. Some areas of Indiana are experiencing frost warnings this weekend, while others of us in Southern Indiana have awakened to a very cool morning, but very warm temperatures during the day.

With the cool weather, my thoughts turn to Fall, which I love, and the foods I prepare in the fall. Mostly my thoughts revolve around soups and stews. I love Fall and the delicious root vegetables that are often associated with it. Even my tea changes and becomes a nice, naturally decaffeinated, spicy rooibos tea.

Lunch on Friday was one of those soups. One I made up again. I had a couple of sweet potatoes and some butternut squash out of our garden, so I decided to use them.

Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1 medium onion
2 medium - large sized sweet potatoes
1 small butternut squash
4 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1 1/2 teaspoon red curry paste (If you like more spiciness, use 2 - 2 1/2 teaspoons, I do)
1-14 oz. can lite coconut milk

Preparation:
Place olive oil in heavy bottom soup pot and heat. Chop onion and add to pan. Peel and chop sweet potatoes and butternut squash and allow to sauté, about 8 minutes, stirring quite often. Add vegetable broth and let cook, covered, until potatoes and squash are fork tender. Place ingredients in soup pot into a blender and pureé. (Be careful doing this as hot liquid could squirt out of your blender. I always cover the top of the blender with a folded dish towel for safety.) Once you have pureéd the soup, return it to the soup pot and add: salt, cumin, allspice, red curry paste and coconut milk. Stir and allow to heat up again. Serve with hot, fresh, homemade bread.

I made the Outrageously Easy Big Bread from VegWeb the idea for which I got from Jewish Vegan’s website. The bread was a big hit for everyone who tried it and it really is Outrageously easy! So Lynn, here it is, just for you. Lynn and Jackie (two people who I spend time with every other Friday to do our organic produce co-op, and who also so graciously sample my recipes) got to try the Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash soup. Lynn wanted to save some for her daughter to try, but I laughed at her because she kept going back and drinking some more. One more thing about the bread, you are supposed to cut the dough into two pieces to make 2 big loaves. I cut it into 4 pieces and had 4 small loaves.

Here’s some pictures of the day.

Late Friday night, we took a friend of ours, Karen, over to Whole Foods Market in Louisville with us. She had never been and wanted to go. Ken discovered dried hominy (Posole) and wanted to try it. He loves hominy and like, beans, if you can find the dried and make your own, that is always the best.

Ken soaked the dried hominy overnight, then we cooked it on Saturday, adding some dried chile pods (we used habanero, chipotle, cascabel and pequin). Make sure you drain the soak water and then rinse the hominy. We used vegetable broth for the liquid, so put in enough liquid to come up over the dried hominy about 1 inch. You can use a combination of vegetable broth and water. We let it cook about 2 hours first then added the chiles and a little salt for the last hour. I made some stoneground cornmeal muffins, and we used some dill pickle relish and diced purple onion in it. I thought it was pretty good, Ken thought it was delicious! So, be adventurous and give it a try.

I went to some garage sales with my sister, Kay, yesterday morning. We had a great time. I didn’t take a jacket and it was so cold, I had to buy a jacket at one of the sales and put it on! I found a brand new breadmaker and I’m trying it out this morning.

Guess that’s all for now.

Happy, Healthy Eating

Jackie V.