Election Day Liveblog: Butternut Squash and Parsnip soup... with CURRY

Gotta work the curry in there somewhere... Anyway, today I'm doing my avoiding-all-election-returns-coverage, so I thought I'd blog about making soup.

I googled for some recipes that included butternut squash and parsnips, and came up with these two recipes, which I'll kind of use for a guideline, but I didn't find any (in my brief search) which included all three ingredients, s you see why I'm winging it here.

Oh, and Mom? Just so you know, I'm using the beautiful camera you gave me!

Plus, I'm going to put the rest of this under the fold, so I don't murder anyone's bandwidth too terribly...

All right, first, I have two small butternut squash (maybe 1.5 pounds each?), peeled and seeded, and two pounds of parsnips, peeled. I'll cut them up into largish chunks - the parsnips smaller than the squash, since they'll take longer to cook.

Next, I've got three large onions and about six stalks of celery (the celery in the Ziploc has been halved in length - it's what I had on hand this morning)

Then, I've got garlic, ginger root, curry powder, and also some Tandoori mix, because I think the hot curry powder needs a little extra dimension

Got all the squash and parsnips cut up, the celery (about 3 cups) and onion (perhaps 4 cups) is chopped, and I've got 2.5 TB of the hot curry powder, 1.5 TB of the Tandoori seasoning, 1 heaping TB of chopped garlic, and 1 heaping TB of minced ginger measured out:

(Oh, and I can't forget the 48oz of chicken broth I'm going to use!)

OK, time to sweat the onions and celery in about 2 TB of olive oil (regular vegetable oil will do, too), at medium to medium-low heat

Then, when the onions and celery are soft, add the garlic and ginger, stir, then add the spices and toast them for about 5 minutes, mixing occasionally.

Now to add the stock/broth (it looked a little "dry," so I also added about 4 c of water) and turn the heat on high. Bring that soup to a boil!

When it boils, reduce the heat to low, cover, and let it simmer for about an hour...

By the way, I would like for someone to please explain to me how it is that, no matter the size of my soup pot, whatever I'm cooking expands to fill it? It's very confuzzling ;-) Anyway, this recipe made about six quarts.

Now that it's all cooked, it's time to purée it. Unfortunately, I only just discovered that my stick-blender has died a quiet death in the cabinet (I don't use it that often), so I'll have to do the soup in batches in my blender:

And, lo and behold, it's SOUP!!

For those with more... delicate palates, I would suggest you start with HALF the amount of Tandoori and curry. My Beloved and I like the spice level, but it might be a bit too spicy-hot for those who aren't used to it.

I garnished with a sprig of cilantro, and you could also use a dollop of sour cream or heavy cream. Hm, I bet you could also add a fair bit of heavy cream (2 to 4 cups?) and make this a "cream of" soup, but don't forget your calorie and fat levels would sky-rocket. As-is, this is a pretty low-fat soup (just the olive oil), which will warm you to your toes on a brisk Autumn evening!

Hope you enjoy - AND I hope you've gone out and exercised your Constitutional right to VOTE!

UPDATE: And whattayaknow, my Beloved fixed my stick blender! *sigh* He's so awesome... ;-)

CatHouse Chat

Oh glorious love of Christ my Lord Divine,
That made Him stoop to save a soul like mine;
Through all my days and then in Heaven above,
My song will silence never, I'll worship him forever,
And praise Him for His glorious love.
("Oh Glorious Love" by the Talley Trio)

November 04, 2008