Tag Archives: soup

Pumpkin Soup

5 Nov

This is the way my mom makes pumpkin soup… We make it locally with pumpkin, but then again, in Puerto Rico you just go to the store and buy PUMPKIN. But in the US, you can’t just go to the store and buy a piece of pumpkin… Below you’ll find a Puerto Rican pumpkin.

Photo Courtesy of the blog La Vida en Mi Patio – http://lavidaenmipatio.blogspot.com

In the US there are plenty varieties of pumpkin.  This was a challenge for us when my little nephew started eating vegetables because we were not able to find a pumpkin that was the same as the pumpkins we find in Puerto Rico. So we learned that the closest varieties are actually a KABOCHA squash or a butternut squash.

This is a Kabocha Squash
Photo Courtesy from the blog Apple Pie, Patis, Paté – http://www.applepiepatispate.com

So we have made this recipe using Puerto Rican pumpkin, Kabocha squash or butternut squash… it’s really more a method than a recipe. But you get my drift, no?  They do look similar on the outside, no???

 

PUMPKIN SOUP

2 lbs of Kabocha squash or Caribbean Calabaza– about 4 -5 cups, peeled
1 large onion, chopped in large chunks
½ large green pepper or 1 medium one, chopped in large chunks too
1 clove of garlic, peeled
2 -3 cups vegetable broth
Water, if needed
A large pinch of oregano
Salt and Pepper
Olive oil

I always do this eyeballing the ingredients… here is how I measure things for this recipe.

  1. In a large soup pot over medium-high heat, add a little drizzle of olive oil and add the onions, peppers and garlic clove. Sautee a little bit to soften the vegetables.
  2. Add the pumpkin to the pot. Mix it all well. Add enough vegetable stock to almost cover the pumpkins. If the 2-3 cups of vegetable stock are not enough, add some water. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of oregano.
  3. Cover the pot and allow the mixture to boil. When it reaches a rolling boil, turn down to a medium low to simmer. Cook for about 30 minutes until the pumpkin is cooked thru and very soft.
  4. Check the seasoning. Add a bit more salt or pepper if you feel it needs it.
  5. With an immersion blender, puree the contents of the pot to create a pureed soup. If you don’t have an immersion blender, transfer the pumpkin and liquid CAREFULLY in batches to a blender to blend…

Garnish with a few toasted pumpkin seeds. This is completely optional…

My mom doesn’t even use the olive oil when she was making this for my nephew. She just dumps everything in the pot and cooks it all together, then she purees. So you could even make this without oil.

If the consistency is too thick for you, just add a little bit of more vegetable stock or even water. But then check for seasoning to make sure it still tastes delicious.

Let me know how you like this… OK??

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Vegetable Noodle Soup

23 Mar

I just came back from a spiritual retreat… the ones I spend in silence, meditating about 10 hours a day and fasting.  Yes… fasting.  No solid food – only water, lemon juice and honey…  We drink that “watered down lemonade” about 5 times a day, which helps our body use up all the energy it usually uses up digesting food to actually eliminate a lot of toxins that accumulate over time…

After these retreats, you feel light and energized, but you also you need to ease your body into taking solid foods again… We usually start with a huge fruit salad – today’s salad had a lot of papaya and bananas with a little bit of mangoes and other “sweet” fruits.  But after that, your body starts getting hungry… and what better way to welcome your system to solid food again than with a hearty vegetable soup.

Literally, it took me 25 minutes to make this soup.  It hit the spot…

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VEGETABLE NOODLE SOUP

4 baby red-skinned potatoes, quartered
1 carrot, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 tbs sofrito
1 tbs olive oil
1 vegetable broth bullion cube
1 bunch of noodles – whole wheat vermicelli
Salt and Pepper to taste
about 2 cups of water
5-6 grape tomatoes, quartered – optional
2 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves – optional
  1. In a medium pot over medium heat, pour olive oil.  When the oil has heat up a bit, add sofrito and the vegetable bullion cube.  Smash the cube a bit so that it dissolves better.
  2. Add the onions.  Saute for a little while.
  3. Add the cut potatoes and the carrots.  Saute for a little while to give it a head start.
  4. Add the tomatoes.
  5. Add enough water to cover the vegetables.  Cover and let it boil at a medium roll for about 20 minutes.
  6. After 20 minutes, the potatoes and the carrots should be done.
  7. Add the noodles and stir so the noodles separate and they don’t stick together.  Cover again.
  8. After the noodles have cooked, about 5 minutes, add the spinach leaves.  They will wilt into the broth almost immediately.  Cover and turn off the heat.  Let the soup finish cooking with the residual heat.
  9.  After about 10 minutes… serve and enjoy.

This is the foundation recipe – to this you can add anything else you might have on your fridge – mushrooms, peppers, celery, etc.  Your imagination is the limit… 

 This is also the same soup recipe I make when I am feeling “under-the-weather”…  so you can say this is my “vegetable soup for my soul”.  From my soul to yours… buen provecho.

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