Thursday, July 10, 2008

Yellow Squash Soup with Jalapeno, Roasted Corn and Roasted Red Peppers

I've got squash soup coming out of my ears, lol Well, out of my freezer that is, and I'm lovin' it. I actually passed up the calories of ice cream yesterday to have a big ass bowl of this soup....I was looking forward to it all day. There is nothing more simple than pureed vegetable soups, seriuosly! Pureed vegetable soups are:

#1 the vegetable, summer squash, carrot, broccoli, celery, leeks, asparagus, cauliflower, corn, fresh peas, spinach (greens), turnip, beet, winter squash, etc.

#2 oil, onion, garlic, and even the garlic is optional,

#3 stock or water


I find no need for any type of cream, milk, yogurt to make these soups richer, blending them (pureeing) makes them "creamy" enough for me, but it's always an option. I tend to use less stock, more vegetables, to make a thicker puree.

Adding anything else is a bonus! For instance, as I was cleaning out my fridge, using the remainder of this last weeks veggies, before picking up this weeks CSA box, and for some reason I forgot about the jalapenos that I picked up from the Mexican market about 5 days ago....how could I forget about jalapenos? Wow 5 days old...they had to be used! Ah....squash soup with jalapenos, perfect. So I sauteed 4-5 sliced jalapenos with the onion before adding the stock and squash, and then pureed it all together...yum! (I thought about using chipolte w/adobo for another variation, but the dark red color would clash with the color of the summer squash...maybe cauliflower, or winter squash w/chipolte?)


I used corn stock and added leftover roasted corn, shredded beet greens, (I always add greens to my soup, if I have them, and these were from last weeks CSA box), chicken and I roasted a red bell pepper, and topped it off with a squeeze if lime! OMG, killer!


Now, one of the reasons I think my soups are killer is because I use my own stock, you can make these soups with store bought low sodium chicken broth, or water, I don't know what they would taste like but if you don't have anything to compare the taste to then I'm sure both are fine....me, on the other hand, I know what good soup tastes like, LOL! (sorry, that's my "inner bitch-snob" talking)


Flavor additions ar endless....

fresh herbs, basil, mint, parsley, dill, etc.
bacon or smokey meats
shredded greens
melty cheeses, feta, jack, parmesan, , goat, etc.
pine nuts
flavored oils (truffle)
citrus


My next food post will be homemade stock, both traditionally made and my pressure cooker method, chicken and vegetable/corn.
Life is good, homemade soup is good......and yummy!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks fabulous that soup!!

fawn said...

When you are in town next month we are going to have to do some cooking with sweet corn!