Veg*n Cooking and Other Random Musings: Spicy Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup

Monday, November 10, 2008

Spicy Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup

Each week, we have a routine of going through our paper bag filled with community garden tomatoes in various stages of ripening, as well as through our winter squash "stash" to pull out anything that needs to be eaten. After getting an "inventory" as to the ingredients we have at home to work with, I can then plan our weekly menu. This week, on top of all those tomatoes you saw in the Weekly Local Booty Update, we also had a butternut (from our community garden) and a delicata squash (from the farmer's market) to work with. The delicata is reserved for a meal later in the week. The butternut was featured in this week's installment of "soup and bread" night, also informally known as Saturday night. :-)

After last week's thick soup, I decided another thick, hearty soup was in order seeing that it has gotten a lot more seasonal (aka cold) this week. This was a very easy soup to make - which was a good thing, I spent all of Saturday doing gardening work, baking, and doing some dishes. Poor Brett was inundated with homework. Sunday, when I should have been cleaning the apartment, I watched football instead. Brett worked on more homework, and watched a full game and part of the evening game with me. I hope everyone had as lovely of a weekend as I did.

Now, enough of the small talk, on to the pictures and recipe!















The local booty legend:
no asterisk = grocery store
+ = The Root Cellar
* = farmer's market
** = CSA
*** = Container or Community Garden
**** = the non-profit buying club, Blue Planet or Purcell Mountain Farms

Spicy Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Soup

1 medium butternut squash, halved, seeds and "innards" removed, peeled and cubed ***
1 large sweet potato, peeled and cubed *
1 red onion, quartered +
4 cloves of garlic, peeled +
3 dried cayenne peppers, stems removed and seeded ***
4 cups of water
ground cumin
ground coriander
pepper
salt

Combine butternut, sweet potato, onion, garlic, peppers, and water in a large pot.

Simmer for 30-35 minutes, or until veggies are very soft.

Let cool for a few minutes.

Transfer to a food processor and add cumin and coriander.

Blend until very smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This went really well with some crusty bread. I love how sweet, spicy and creamy this soup turned out. So yummy!

'Til next time.

9 comments:

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

AMAZING SOUP!!

VeganCowGirl said...

yahh!!! Your soup looks so yummy. We did soup and bread last night too!!! Squash soup is the best.

Lisa (Show Me Vegan) said...

so pretty! My neighborhood is full of falling ginkgo leaves right now about that color. I love them!

Anonymous said...

Sounds yummy -- I like the idea of the spicy with the sweetness. Our soup this week is going to involve in some fashion a huge and aging celery root at the bottom of my fridge. I bought it quite a while ago in a fit of experimentation (I've never used one) and, well, the fit wore off before I cooked it. Now is the time, I'd really like that space in the fridge back.

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

You've got two of my favorite foods right there ;o)

Catherine Weber said...

ooooohhh . . . spicy squash soup is the BEST! (spicy sweet potato soup is pretty awesome, too!)

Unknown said...

Hey, where did the post go about granola bars? I copied and pasted it from my reader to send to my BIL because he was just asking about homemade vegetarian granola bars. I hope that's okay! It was such a great post; hope to see it again. :)

J said...

Veggie Girl - Thanks!

Vegan Cow Girl - Thanks. Aren't soup and bread nights the best during this cold time of year? I agree, I like squash soup a lot. I have another idea for yet ANOTHER squash soup this weekend. We are going to turn into squash here!

Lisa - Thank you! I bet your neighborhood looks lovely!

Susan B - I like the combination too, they complimented each other well and created a soup that wasn't too sweet or spicy.

Ooooh, I'm interested in what you come up with. I've had that too - where I buy something I've never used before, never get around to making what I had originally intended, and then have to struggle to find something to do with it. Do let us know how your soup turns out!

Chocolate Covered Vegan - Me too!

Catherine - I couldn't agree more. We tend to eat spicy most of the time, so I have been trying to spare Brett at least during our soup night, but the cayennes just magically ended up in the pot. :-) Squash soup and sweet potato soup are good - I agree - so why not put 'em together!

Chandelle - Hahahaha, you caught me! I was working on the post and accidentally published it instead of saving it. Not a problem about sending it to your BIL, I hope he enjoys them as much as we have.

Thanks about the post - it is up now. ;-)

www.tuweb.biz said...

The dude is absolutely right, and there is no question.