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pumpkin curry soup
Someone made a comment on the pumpkin slices post that they wanted to see some savory pumpkin dishes that weren’t soup. I posted the oreccheitte the other day in hopes to answer that request, but unfortunately could not come up with anything more creative beyond that, and am now posting a pumpkin soup.
But really, those cans of puree just beg to be baked into a soup. How could I ignore that? When something is practically a soup already, and all it needs is a pinch of this and a swig of that, I say let the soup be made! It will save me at least 500 sit-ups, which is what I would be doing if I were to make the can of puree into the other obvious choice: pumpkin pie.
Oooh, that would be good. If you want a pumpkin pie recipe, click here.
If that is too boring for you, then click here for pumpkin crème brûlée.
Or better yet, come back in a few days for when I post the pumpkin torte with brown sugar whipped cream cheese icing.
zucchini soup. it’s so much better than you can imagine.
I came up with this recipe right after making the pinkalicious cupcakes because I wanted something green afterward (when you read the story, you’ll understand why). Since I had a huge zucchini sitting on the counter, and they happen to be a perfect end-of-summer-lead-into-fall sort of vegetable, I decided to take my chances and turn it into a soup.
You. have. no. idea. It was absolutely delicious. And I don’t say that very often (or at least, I think I don’t). Since then, I have made two batches. My foodie friend Shannon loved it even, and so did her cute baby Clare.
This soup is easy, elegant, cheap, healthy, and low in calories (only 3 tablespoons of cream for the whole pot!). I don’t think you could ask for more.
Okay, I’m done with my little commercial. Now go make this!
You won’t be sorry.
kung fu panda soup
We’ve been watching a lot of Kung Fu Panda lately. The movie stirred up strong craving for noodles in my nine-year-old. This is what I came up with. He insisted on eating the soup with chopsticks.
I now present to you: Kung Fu Panda Soup.
lentil soup you’ll absolutely love. trust me.
I know for some of you the weather is getting a bit too warm for a soup like this, but I wanted to sneak it in before the summer. It is one of my favorite soups. It has tons of fiber, tons of vegetables, and tons of flavor. I make it, freeze it, and then anytime I want to feel good about what I eat, I pull a bowl of it out my freezer and heat it up for lunch.
Though I changed this recipe so much that it is definitely my own now, my inspiration came from a book my friend Shannon gave me. It’s by America’s Test Kitchen and is called The New Best Recipe
Oh, and I just want to briefly mention that the toast in the picture there is from the same baguette I froze a couple weeks ago. All I did was pop the frozen pieces in the toaster.
black bean tortilla soup
The kids are on their second week of spring break (aaahhh!!), and they were watching so much TV that the cable box and DVD player froze up (I only TRY to be a good mom—never said I was one). So now they’re keeping themselves entertained by making up songs about Spongebob Squarepants and Star Wars.
Here’s a chicken tortilla soup I adapted to be vegetarian. It uses chipotles in adobo, which you can buy in a can in the Mexican food aisle. Any leftover chipotles can be frozen in an airtight container for up to a year.
potato leek soup
I know you’ve all been wondering where I have been. Sorry. It’s been a crazy few weeks. I am currently planning lots of new things for sophistimom (thanks to some of the ideas of our creative reader, Brooke, at ConversationsWithACupcake). All the brainstorming is cutting into time I could be spending making new posts. Don’t worry, though. The new and improved sophistimom.com will be online soon.
While you’re all waiting though . . .
Here is a very simple and comforting soup you can make in a hurry.
new year’s beef stew
All growing up, a good friend of ours used to host a party at her house on the afternoon of New Year’s Day. It was so nice to gather after the rush of Christmas and the craziness of New Year’s Eve, and just chat, put together puzzles, watch football, whatever. It was such a relaxing way to celebrate the end of the holidays.
It was potluck, but she would always make this amazing pot of stew. My stew is not the same as hers, but I have tried to carry on her tradition with my own recipe.
winter squash bisque
I have been a bit distant lately. I know; I’m sorry. I entered a fiction contest on Saturday (Yeah, yeah, la-dee-dah. I’m sure I won’t win.), which meant the weeks leading up to Saturday were very busy. It was hard to concentrate on cookies and chocolate when my head was buried in tall ships and Pre-Revolutionary America.
Anyway, I did come up with a few recipes, and I figured I’d post them now, while you’re all dreaming up your Thanksgiving menus. This is the winter squash soup I promised you. By the way, it freezes beautifully, so if you want to serve it for Thanksgiving, make it now, let it cool completely, and freeze it in a big container. You can heat it up when the turkey comes out of the oven!
Coming soon: pumpkin crème brûlée, for those of you who want something a little different for pumpkin pie.
homemade chicken stock in a slow cooker
I love this chicken stock. You don’t need to wait until you have a spare set of chicken bones—you just use a small whole chicken. Because it’s made in the slow cooker, the chicken becomes tender instead of tough. And best of all, it cooks while you sleep.
For the vegetables, just use any odds and ends left over in the fridge. I used the carrots and celery my kids never ate.
spaghetti squash soup
When I had the idea for this recipe, I bought a spaghetti squash and stuck it on my counter.
It sat there for a week.
I was nervous that it would come out as all my other pathetic spaghetti squash dishes—bland and disappointing.
But it turned out better than I hoped.
