Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Taste of Summer


Now that I make chicken stock by the buckets in my pressure cooker, I'm able to make all kinds of vegetable soups that are high in nutrition, super low in calories, and few, very few, ingredients...oh yes, and fresh, fresh, fresh!

I'm sure I'll be sick of zucchini by the middle of summer, but the light green pattypan squash that I brought home from Waynes garden was the best of the 4 squash soups I experimented with. I purposely used only one type of squash for each soup, hoping to taste flavor differences. The differences were noticeable when tasted side by side, but so slight otherwise that in the future I'll throw them all in the same pot. The picture above, from L to R, is yellow, green pattypan, and zucchini squash soup.

The other veggies are the ones I picked up from the farmers market on Sunday. Leeks and fennel for Marks quiche, fresh corn for some corn chowder and to add to the squash soup, broccoli and radishes for salads, carrots for more soup, onions, and celery to have on stock....you can never have too many onions, because if you have nothing else in the house, you still have...well...onions! Remember, onions are a vegetable too!


I bought 8lbs. of squash from Wayne, (all of the squash in the picture above!),and although I'm tempted to go and buy some more today, I've got plenty of food in the fridge and freezer, including ready made squash soup. I get my CSA box tomorrow night, and Mark and I are going to Minnesota on Thursday for the Level 2 Cert and will be gone for a few days, so I don't need anything.

Squash soup

onion
garlic
squash
stock

Saute onion in oil or butter (1-2 tbl.) until translucent 5-10 min, added crushed garlic in the last minute of cooking. Add squash, cut into large chunks and barely cover with stock, bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer (slightly covered) until soft, 15-20 min.. Puree in soup pot, using an immersion blender, or when cool enough to handle, puree in blender. Season with S&P.

I have so much soup that I haven't had a salad in days! I'm still in love with the cauliflower soup, I made more carrot, and I've been adding all sorts of stuff to my squash soup, including roasted corn, greens (of course) and chicken. Somehow I think jalapenos will eventually end up in the squash soup too!

Soup is good.
Life is good, my life is good,

4 comments:

Tori said...

Great stuff here! I have some rogue squash plants in my garden this year, and I'm not sure what kind just yet. I am always looking for something to do with all of them since the plants produce so much. "Just squash" soup never crossed my mind. Now I have a good excuse to buy an immersion blender! Thanks!

Tracy Reifkind said...

Tori,

I'm lovin' how these veggie suops get so creamy in the blender, I can't imagine ADDING cream...what's up with that? It's hard for me to stop eating them right out of the blender!

I did something else super cool in the kitchen today and I can't wait to post it! Hint; it has to do with soup and corn......

Anonymous said...

mmmmm soup. It is winter down here at my corner of the world and so I'm a little bit "over" cold veggies and feeling the soup right now.

Looking at your luscious soups makes me long for summer and seasonal summer squash. But still I'm inspired. I have a whole large cauliflower in the fridge and so I think I'm going to go and roast it with olive oil and cumin and turn it into soup with a bit of chili and onion. mmmmmmmmmmm

Tracy Reifkind said...

wee,

I am so hooked on my roasted cauliflower soup with curry and a pinch of cayenne I could eat it every single day...oh yes, I do, lol!

I throw a handful of raisins in it while it sits in the fridge to 'plump up'. I buy 2 heads at a time now to make a double batch...it doesn't last long!

And, even though it's summer I almost always prefer hot/warm foods. I was just saying to Mark yesterday, "What's up with people not thinking soup is something you can't eat in the summer? It's so freakin' good!"

Soup will be a daily meal for me for the rest of my life, I can see that now.