So yeah, I’ve been making a crapton of soup lately since it’s fall and all.
Last week, I did make a variant on carrot-and-coriander. It also involved ginger, red lentils, and garbanzo beans. It was really, really good. I made the broth basically of the pureed carrot/cilantro stuff, then added a bit of coriander (ground cilantro seeds) and cumin. I used these vegan fake chicken broth cubes for the stock. It’s good stuff, those bouillon cubes; pity the name is so dorktastic. That’s a big problem I see with a lot of vegetarian/vegan products: really twee or pun-laden names that are so dumb you just about don’t want to buy the product. Oh well, it was a damn good soup, dorky stock notwithstanding.
On the same day that I made the carrot-and-coriander, I made a butternut squash soup (I made two vats of soup and froze a bunch). I had on hand a couple of smoked onions that I’d grilled outside over coals, so I pureed those in with the squash, and two of the aforementioned bouillon cubes. Then I crumbled in a bit of rosemary, and let it simmer with a couple of bay leaves. I bulked out the broth with a couple of cups of cooked pearl barley and a can of garbanzo beans (I’ve been really digging on the garbanzos lately – and don’t let me hear you calling them “chickpeas.” Could a bean be more awkwardly and non-euphoniously named? “Garbanzo” can be spoken with infinitely more flourish than “Chickpea.”)
Anyway, tonight, I made a huge pot (4 quarts!) of vegetable soup. I sauteed a leek, a couple of stalks of chopped celery and my last smoked onion until soft, then pureed 2/3 of the onion/celery/leek mixture. This, a couple of tablespoons of Better Than Bouillon (I’m out of the dorky artificial chicken cubes) and a couple of bay leaves formed the base of my soup. To that I added five small brown potatoes, cubed, three carrots, diced, two more stalks of celery, diced, a couple of cups of cooked pearl barley, and a handful of brown lentils. Oh, and a can of “crushed tomatoes.” There was also a teaspoon of coriander, two of turmeric, and a teaspoon of cumin. Turned out to be a pretty nice combination.
I’ve got two more big ol’ butternut squashes in the fridge downstairs. One of these days pretty soon here, I think I will bake them, then see about making a different butternut soup, plus save back some of the squash and make something akin to pumpkin muffins, but with butternut instead.
Glad you mentioned butternut squash soup. We have a lot left from making “b.s. risotto” (we had it somewhere made with hazelnuts and it was so good we had to make some at home), baking it, grilling it, &c.
I’m going to be trying out a butternut squash lasagne recipe tomorrow. If it doesn’t suck, I will post about it here.