As the weather is starting to get chillier and more autumn-y foods are becoming appropriate, I made some delicious squash and apple soup last night. Apparently certain bits of rinds and peelings and whatnot are not supposed to go through the garbage disposal, and the universe felt it was very important that I learn this lesson the hard way, with a backed up, overflowing sink this morning. The maintenance guy will learn the real lesson later this afternoon, which is basically ‘Don’t let Mellzah cook’.
In case you would like to make YOUR sink back up:
Ingredients: 5 3/4 cups chicken broth 1 small butternut squash, peeled, de-membraned, and cubed 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces 2 cups of onion, vertically sliced 1 1/2 cups of granny smith apple, peeled and sliced 3 tablespoons butter 1 tablespoon all purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 teaspoon salt
Put your chicken broth in a pot with the squash and sweet potato; bring to a boil. Once it’s boiling, cover the pot and reduce the heat; cook for about 15 minutes or until everything is tender. Remove all those veggies from the broth with a slotted spoon, and mash them. In a skillet on another burner over medium-low heat, melt a tablespoon of butter, and put in your onions and apples; cook them until they’re lightly browned. It will take forever. It will be delicious. Promise. Stir those bad boys up occasionally lest they burn on the pan. Don’t get impatient with the process–the browner they get, the more delicious everything will be. When they’re cooked, remove them from the skillet, turn the heat up on that burner to high, and melt the rest of your butter. As soon as it’s melted, add a tablespoon of flour and whisk it CONSTANTLY until it turns golden brown. It won’t take too long. At that point, slowly add a cup of the broth from the pot and stir it in until it thickens–it will only take a couple of minutes to do so. After it’s thickened, add it, the mashed squash, the onions and apples, and your salt and pepper back to the big pot, stir everything up, and let it simmer for a little while longer. You could also add nutmeg and cinnamon if you’re so inclined. OR curry powder. But not both at the same time. Ewww.
When you realize your garbage can is full, in a moment of sheer laziness, try to put some of the squash peelings down the garbage disposal. Realize you’ve made an enormous mistake. Run the garbage disposal for 30 minutes continuously bright and early in the morning to ensure that the neighbors hate you. Show up to work late and angry but full of deliciousness.
De-membraned? I knew there was a reason that I don’t eat squash. It’s full of membranes!
Ever carve a pumpkin? All the goop that’s inside there, that’s the membrane. Squash is similar, only it has way less crap to scoop out! MEMBRANE-Y!
mmm, that sounds good, and easy to veganize. I have four squashes in the backyard right now…………. SOUP!
What do you use as a vegan soup base? I thought about making it all veggie when I was gathering ingredients, but I didn’t see anything except chicken & beef. Laaaaame.
SOME places DO sell a “Vegetable broth” alongside the meatier standbys… I know it exists, I’ve seen it!
I don’t doubt it exists, I suppose the place I was shopping just doesn’t carry it (it’s one of those discount grocery stores–everything is really really cheap, but they don’t carry every variety of everything in order to cut costs).
there is veggie broth. even swanson makes it. and I would use olive oil for the butter.
thanks for the reminder of this soup, iam going to make some on friday i think.
Shouldn’t you be making something tomato based? 😉
I’m freezing half the soup and making spaghetti tonight with the tomato and basil you gave me. Mmmmm.
quiet, you! i am so sick of tomatoes and i have a huge thing of tomato soup in my fridge, dammit. i need to make tomato sauce and can it, but i need a big stock pot to cook it in. my biggest pot holds four quarts, and that isn’t worth it to can, really.
ooh, actually my favorite thing to use is a spoonful of this concentrate called “better than bouillon”. They make meat and veggie kinds and it is so good, but a little hard to find. Maybe trader joe’s has it?
I’ll have to check it out, I love Trader Joe’s! Their spicy hummus is pretty yummy.
Ooo, my garbage disposal has been dying to be blocked up again lately. I will have to try this one out.
The maintenance man audibly sighed at me over the phone–I think he is sick of futzing with my garbage disposal; to be fair, it’s not just me breaking it–Amy puts coffee grounds down it pretty regularly, which is disaster in the making.
Generally if I have food trimmings left over that I can’t seem to find a way to get rid of (my not having a garbage disposal and all) I will just flush it down the toilet.
I figure that sending mostly intact organic matter down probably isn’t nearly as bad as some of the stuff *I* excrete.
I live in terror of clogging the toilet with anything, though–if the garbage disposal breaks, no biggie. If the toilet breaks, there’s gonna be trouble. Trouble. Trouble I certainly don’t want to deal with.
I think everything is going in the garbage from now on. Or I’ll start a compost pile until I have enough to create a garbage bomb to launch at Nosy Kent Meth Biddy’s place.