Saturday Soups -- # 1 Fall 2008

Yes, friends, it's time for me to start up the Saturday Soups blogs again. If you haven't seen any of these recipes before, all you need to do is click on the link for Soups and you may find a recipe or two to your suiting.

Since we just passed Hallowe'en, I had best begin the fall season of Saturday Soups with a pumpkin recipe. Herewith Pumpkin soup with cranberry puree. Laura had several interesting blogs about cranberries a couple of weeks ago--maybe you will find some of the cranberries she pictured for your puree.

PUMPKIN SOUP with Cranberry Puree
Serves 12

PUMPKIN SOUP:

1-1/2 cups chopped onion (1 large)
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
2 tsp. ground ginger (dried)
1 tsp. ground cardamom (or nutmeg)
1/2 tsp. ground allspice
1 tsp. ground pepper
4 medium sweet potatoes (about 2 pounds total)
7 cups pumpkin puree (fresh crookneck is best)
10 cups chicken stock (vary according to texture of soup)

CRANBERRY PUREE:
12 oz. bag fresh cranberries
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
2 T. brandy (optional)

1) For the soup, bake sweet potatoes at 400 degrees until they are very soft. When cooled, peel and chop roughly. (NOTE: You can do this a few hours ahead of time, if you wish.)

2) Sauté onions in butter until just soft. Add ginger, cardamom, allspice and ground pepper. Stir.

3) Add sweet potatoes, pumpkin puree and chicken stock. Simmer for 1/2 hour to combine flavors. Let soup mixture cool slightly. Puree the soup in batches until it is all smooth. The texture is important, so be sure to cook all ingredients until very soft, then puree in food processor to velvety smoothness.

4) For the Cranberry Puree, place all ingredients together in a medium covered saucepan. Cook over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes or until cranberries pop and start to thicken. Cook 5 minutes more. Cool slightly before pureeing cranberry mixture in food processor or blender. Strain through cheesecloth or a fine mesh strainer; reserve cranberry puree in an airtight container. This may be made several days in advance.

ENJOY!

Saturday Soup II

After I initiated the Saturday Soup post last week, my brother noted that he is the soup maker in his family, but tends to make soups that feature tomatoes. So I will pick a soup that uses tomatoes (to some extent). Feel free to let me know if you have a hankering (isn't that a great old word) for a particular kind of soup. I will see if I can find a recipe.

A word about the soups. First, you will note that all the soups SERVE 12. The reason for that is to accommodate projecting the amount for our church’s soup Bistro. You can of course half the recipe if you like, or double it for that matter.

Second, all the soup recipes come from somewhere—if the original place is known, I will include that information. Our church did assemble a soup cookbook for the 15th anniversary of Bistro several years ago. In fact, copies are still available at the church!

Third, each recipe has been reviewed by a member of our church who is a graduate of the New York Restaurant School. Alice Anne is a highly qualified chef, and she has vetted all the quantities, instructions, etc. She has also modified the original recipes to make the soups more easy to prepare.

Finally, I will rotate the soup choices. I started last week with an orange soup—a pumpkin, squash or sweet potato choice. I will try to rotate thusly: orange; vegetable; meat based—beef or chicken; fish. There will be an occasional miscellaneous soup that doesn’t fit into these categories.

So, herewith this week’s soup:

SPICY BLACK - AND - REDBEAN SOUP
Serves 12

This soup was first served at Market Square Church following the noontime World AIDS Day Memorial service in 1998.

Vegetable oil cooking spray (such as PAM)
3 cups chopped onions
2-1/2 cups sliced carrot
6 cups water
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 (16 oz.) packages frozen shoepeg white corn
2 (15 oz.) cans red beans or kidney beans, drained and rinsed
2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
2 (14.5 oz.) cans Mexican-style stewed tomatoes with jalapeño peppers and spices, undrained
2 (14.5 oz.) cans no-salt-added diced tomatoes, undrained
2 (4.5 oz) cans chopped green chilies

Place a large pot coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat until hot.
Add onion and carrot and sauté 5 minutes. Stir in water and all remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Cover; reduce heat, and simmer 1/2 hour.

Saturday Soup

I have decided to join my fellow bloggers who feature a day of the week with a repeating theme. Among the blogs that I read that have an on-going feature are ones about flowers, bunny fixes, anything about Vancouver Island, trips, mind trips and trip remembrances. Other bloggers keep me entertained with (not weekly) but occasional stories about Boston terriers, whether one or two (I so want one!) and wildlife.

So, as I cast about for what I can use for a weekly feature, I suddenly thought of one of the unique things about the church I attend. Every year, we hold a fundraiser for our local Christian Churches United. We have a soup BISTRO!

We decorate our fellowship hall, we pick four soups and then members & friends of the church make soups and donate other foods such as breads and cookies.

Then we have two seatings (with tickets--that is the fund raiser part) for the community to come, eat soup and listen to wonderful lively music. It is a grand festive occasion. Since we always hold this the first Sunday in December, I think of it as the official start of Advent.

So, I will be featuring a soup a week on Saturdays (until I run out of soups). I plan to feature those from our Bistro, but may throw in some other personal favorites.

First Saturday Soup

Thai Pumpkin Soup--this is one of the all-time favorites.
Makes 12 servings

64 oz. fat-free, low-sodium chicken broth
30 oz. canned (or fresh) pumpkin
24 oz. mango nectar
1/2 cup reduced-fat chunky peanut butter
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
3 T. minced scallions
2 tsp. fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 tsp. fresh orange rind, grated
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
3 T. chopped fresh cilantro

1) Combine broth, pumpkin and nectar in a large Dutch oven, and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat, whisking while adding remaining ingredients,
except for the cilantro.

2) Let simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and add cilantro.

The mango nectar is available in the Spanish foods section of most grocery stores, and rice wine vinegar is available in the Asian foods section.

ENJOY!

All photos in this post taken by church members for Bistro

Saturday Soup 4 Fall 2007

Having promised an orange soup for this week’s Saturday Soup, I decided to choose one that is a little different. Most of the orange soup recipes that I have (by orange I mean have an ingredient such as pumpkin, sweet potato, squash that gives the soup a distinct orange color) call for chicken stock. If you are a total vegan, no doubt you can substitute vegetable stock. This one is different in that the orange ingredient is carrots.

This soup has a lovely zing to it, thanks to the fresh ginger and nutmeg that the recipe calls for. And using carrots and pears gives it a fresh taste.

Carrot Ginger Pear Soup
Makes 12
servings

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1-1/2 cups chopped onions
1/2 cup grated fresh ginger
20 large carrots–peeled and coarsely grated (about 8 cups)
2 quarts chicken stock
2-1/2 cups apple juice
3 large ripe Bartlett pears, peeled, cored and chopped (about 4 cups)
1 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

METHOD
1) In a large stock pot, heat the butter over low heat. When melted, add onions and ginger and cook slowly until soft (about 10 minutes). Add grated carrots, chicken stock, apple juice and chopped pears. Simmer for about 30 minutes. Stir in nutmeg. Let cool slightly.

2) Puree soup in a food processor or blender until perfectly smooth. Store in an airtight container overnight in the refrigerator or up to one month in the freezer. To serve, reheat slowly and garnish with thinly sliced pear or fried grated ginger. Most supermarkets–and all Asian groceries–carry whole fresh ginger root pieces. Choose a piece of root that is very firm with no visible wrinkles. To use ginger root for this recipe, peel all of the brown skin off of the ginger root and put it into a food processor or grater.

Enjoy!