This time of year really is just begging me to make soup.  (Well, maybe not days like today – 66 degrees in New England on November 14th?  Really?)  This recipe has been a long time coming to this blog.  The soup was actually first featured on Domestic Pursuits last year in the background of my whole wheat flaxseed bread post – it really is very tasty, and very versatile.  Aside from the roasting of the pumpkin (which you can avoid, I suppose, by using canned pumpkin puree) this really is a weeknight kind of soup.  Another perk: you can make it with pretty much any squash.  I personally chose pumpkin, this being savory pumpkin week and all, but acorn squash and other similar winter squashes would work just as well.  (I’ve tried it with acorn squash – very awesome!!)   It also goes quite well with whole wheat flaxseed bread.   And aside from the pumpkin this contains pretty much exclusively pantry ingredients – so make it whenever the spirit moves you!!

Thai Pumpkin Soup – adapted from 101cookbooks.com

Ingredients

• 2 pie pumpkins (or acorn squash, or other winter squash)
• Olive oil
• 1 can light coconut milk
• Thai red curry paste
• Chicken broth
• Salt to taste

Cut pumpkins (or other squash) into quarters, and scoop out seeds (save for later garnishing purposes!)  Place pumpkins flesh-side up on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  Roast at 375 degrees for about 45 minutes to an hour, or until the pumpkins are tender.  Cool until pumpkins are able to be handled, then scoop cooked flesh out of the pumpkin skins.  Place pumpkin flesh into a large pot, add coconut milk and thai curry paste and bring to a simmer.  Cook on medium high heat until simmering.  Remove from the heat and puree the pumpkin and coconut milk.  Add chicken broth, stirring well after each addition, until the soup reaches the consistency you prefer.  Add salt to taste.  Enjoy!

Addendum:  I made this on Thanksgiving day and made it even tastier by adding 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger, and a splash of lime juice.  Yum!!

Ok in the home stretch now!  3 days to go, and then I will be 31.  I really think I’m going to finish all of these things on this list!  This soup has a very nice backstory – it’s one of the things my husband made for me for our first Valentine’s day together.  This started our proud tradition of not going out on Valentines day – it’s just so…hokey.  Instead, we got dressed up and he picked up ingredients for a fancy 3 course meal in – turns out, 2 of the 3 courses were bright green (both of them delicious as well – in case you’re wondering the other one was salmon with scotch bonnet pepper sauce – I’ll have to blog about that one some day too) and we have fond memories of eating this green soup on that chilly winter evening back in 2005.

I personally love bisque, however the pound of butter per bowl is a little much for my stomach usually.  This bisque has – wait for it – absolutely NO butter.  Yep, that’s right, no butter.  The avocado provides all of the creaminess one needs in a bisque, and is much, much healthier than butter.  Some people who have reviewed it complain it is too bland; I will agree, it is a bit on the bland side if you follow the recipe to a tee.  I added much more lemon juice than called for and also some extra salt and pepper.  The other thing I did was to add some extra shrimpiness by boiling the shrimp tails in the chicken broth before I used it.  I also pureed the base after it was made, before I added the shrimp, as I personally think a smooth green soup is more tasty looking than a lumpy green soup.  Enjoy with some crusty french bread on its own, or you can try it as an appetizer as well.

Avocado Shrimp Bisque

From William via allrecipes.com

Slice avocados in half, and discard pits.  Remove avocado flesh and chop coarsely.  Remove shrimp tails and chop shrimp coarsely.  Place chicken broth and shrimp tails into a small sauce pan and simmer on low for about 10 minutes.  Strain shrimp tails out of broth.  Combine avocado meat, broth, milk, lemon juice and onion in a small sauce pan and heat through thoroughly but not quite to a boil.  Remove heated broth to a food processor, and puree.  Place pureed soup back into the sauce pan and add chopped shrimp.  Enjoy!

This 30-while-30 recipe came out much better than the last one.  (What can I say, no one bats 1000 all the time!!) And, it is another favorite dish that for some reason I had never cooked until age 30!   Italian Wedding Soup has comfort food written all over it in my house, but usually we get it out of a can.  After making this recipe, I am not sure why - Italian Wedding Soup from scratch was incredibly easy and fantastically tasty!  It is also decidedly more healthy – it has only a fraction of the sodium, as is pretty much true when you compare any homemade soup to a canned soup. 

We used spinach fresh from our garden and used ground turkey rather than ground beef but otherwise followed the recipe pretty closely.  I personally loved the fact that the meatballs were not browned before cooking - they came out like tasty little meaty clouds that melted in the mouth - but you certainly could choose to brown your meatballs before you put them into your soup for even extra flavor. 

Italian Wedding Soup

Adapted from LikeitLoveit via Food.com

Mix together turkey, egg, breadcrumbs, parmesan and spices.  Roll into small (3/4 inch) meatballs.  In a stockpot, combine chicken broth, water, and boullion cube and bring to a boil.  Stir in chopped spinach, meatballs, and pasta.  Cook for at least 10 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through and the pasta is done.  Enjoy!

As strange as it sounds, I was not quite ready for the weather to warm up – don’t get me wrong, the more than 70 inches of snow we had this winter I was more than happy to see melting away, but I really love soup season and will be sorry to see it go.  There are few meals I enjoy more than a bowl of warm soup when it’s cold outside.  The warmth and sunshine today on the 1st official day of spring made me realize that it’s about time to make one last stew before our soup crocks go into hibernation for the summer.  This recipe was very easy to make and was quite hearty.  I omitted half the salt the original recipe calls for and I still thought it could have used even less – I also changed the proportion of sausage to mushrooms a bit to weight it more towards the meat.  Accompanied by a piece of toasted garlic bread, it was a fabulous farewell to cold weather.  While I will miss soup season, I am looking forward to busting out my ice cream maker for the summer!

Sausage and Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

Directions:  In a large pot, brown the sausages until they are completely cooked through (about 10 minutes), then remove from the pan and cool.  Add the olive oil to the pan, and saute the onion and garlic until the onions are translucent – about 5 minutes.  Add the mushrooms and saute for another 5 minutes or until the mushrooms are golden brown.  Add the chicken broth, thyme and pepper flakes, 1 tsp dried parsley and the salt to the pot and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes.  In the meantime, slice the sausage into 1/8 inch thick slices.  Add the sausage to the soup, and the angel hair pasta.  Let cook for about 3-4 minutes or until pasta is cooked.    Enjoy!

Sunday marked the first snowfall of the year. A cold, wintry day calls for a warm hearty dinner. I love this recipe for Pasta e Fagioli. Since this soup is best when simmered for about an hour, it’s perfectly suited for weekend evenings when one has time to hang out in the kitchen. Preparing the vegetables was also a time-consuming process for me, as it took me awhile to julienne the carrots.

Due to copyright restrictions, I am unable to post the recipe here. However, you can find it on Top Secret Recipes. The flavor of this pasta e fagioli soup is very similar to the one found at Olive Garden, but this soup is thicker and seems to contain more pasta.

I have made very few changes to the original recipe. Due to personal preferences, I used crushed tomatoes in place of diced tomatoes and substituted ground turkey for ground beef. I also omitted the chopped celery, adding 1/4 tsp of celery salt for flavor.

When I prepared the pasta e fagioli soup this time, I found that the finished product was too thick, so I added 1 cup of chicken broth a few minutes before I served the soup. Next time, I might cut down on the pasta. According to Top Secret Recipes, this recipe yields 8 servings. In my experience, it yields 8 large servings! I’m going to try freezing some of the leftovers to keep on hand for quick weeknight meals.