Diane Avoli

Ultimate Squash Soup

October 25, 2010

Winter squash is at its sweetest in the fall after the first frost. Squash and pumpkins are very nourishing to the spleen, pancreas, and stomach. It can be served in a soup tureen of course, but it’s certainly festive to serve it in a pumpkin with surrounding colorful leaves and flowers for decoration.

Prep time: 15 min.

Total time: 45 to 60 min.

Ingredients:

-One buttercup squash or any sweet winter squash.

-One pie pumpkin, Cut a circle in top, lift off and hollow out inside.

-½ cup bread crumbs (dry roast for ten min. in a stainless steel skillet on med. – low flame)

-Five cups water or ½ rice milk, ½ water

-One 1 inch piece kombu, wiped clean, soaked for 10 minutes, cut two slices half way through on each side, discard water after soaking.

-One med. onion diced, One or two seeded halved pears. ¾ cup diced seitan, ¾ cup mochi cut into small cubes

-1Tbl. sweet miso dissolved in ¼ cup water, 1 tsp.ginger juice, (grate ginger and squeeze to get the juice). Sliced parsley for garnish

-Two to four dry whole wheat fu rings (pre-soak), 1 Tbl. arrowroot flour & ¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour, pinch of sea salt, deep fry oil, or serve with cubes of hard crusty whole wheat bread.

Preparation

1. Bring water to a boil with kombu, lower heat and simmer for three minutes, remove kombu.
2. Wash, cut in half and remove seeds from squash, brush with corn, sesame or olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and bake with pear uncovered until soft. (400· oven, 25 min.). Let cool
3. Blend squash and pear in kombu broth, add onion, seitan and bread crumbs. Simmer 10 minutes.
4. Add diluted miso and mochi pieces, and bread crumbs, simmer 5 minutes.
5. Squeeze liquid out of fu rings, dip in flours and deep fry in two inches of hot safflower oil. Drain, cut into cubes, serve on the side as croutons or in soup.
6. Baste inside of pumpkin with oil and salt and bake until almost soft, (15 – 20 min at 300 degrees).
7. Soup is served inside pumpkin, garnished with cut up fu rings, ginger juice and parsley. Each scoop of soup can contain a little of the pumpkin, just don’t take too much and have it spring a hole!

Options: For those choosing to avoid flour and oil just leave out the bread crumbs and seitan, add 1 cup of corn cut off the cob. Steam the squash instead of baking it. Skip the Fu rings and enjoy. Ginger is optional too.

Filed under: Recipes