Just Keep Adding: Diary of a Pumpkin Stone Soup

      
     I finally finished reading the wonderful Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, and am slightly dedicated to the idea of trying to eat seasonally and locally. The slightly part was due to the fact that here it was January and I hadn't put up any vegetables or fruits from a massive summer of gardening like Barbara and her family had done, and I was unfortunately living in Hudson County, NJ, where the only locally grown crop is new housing construction and graft.
     But high on the idea that I could at least eat seasonally, I spied a 5 Lb. pumpkin that has been sitting on my kitchen window ledge since late August.  It was just starting to show signs of fatigue as I sliced it open and began the long journey towards a delicious soup (whereas DJ Icepack was convinced I had promised pumpkin pie for dinner...).  I bake my pumpkins with apple juice or cider, cinnamon, and honey to give a little sweet flavor,  but that does add to the prep time.  Cook a larger pumpkin and the extra can be packed up into smaller servings and frozen, to make the next soup or pie a lot faster.
     I found a gorgeous looking recipe in The Greens Cookbook for Basque pumpkin and white bean soup, so I quick soaked some beans (cover dry beans in water and bring to a boil, shut off and soak for at least an hour), and popped the pumpkin in the oven to cook.  We wanted to roast the pumpkin seeds to eat later, so instead of making a soup stock from the seeds and stringy bits of the pumpkin (!!!-and not the band...), as Deborah Madison asked us to do, I shortcut to a box of vegetable stock.  So at this point I am making far too many dishes for a girl with no dishwasher, as the pumpkin is cooking in the oven, beans are simmering on the stove and stock is gurgling in the back.
     Once the pumpkin is tender I add the required one pound to the stock  and half an hour later, the beans.  I taste this 3 hour DJ mix and I am horrified that the pumpkin tastes so very untasty.  Not one to give up, I retire this soup for the night and hope that tomorrow it will be flavor-flav and dinner will go on.  But just in case, I grab a 2Lb. bag of roasted pumpkin from the freezer, for a potential pumpkin emergency the following day.
     Day 2: AAACK!  no way is this soup edible, seasonal or not. I quickly mash up the defrosted 2 Lbs of Pumpkin and throw it in.  The magical blender stick makes a delightful puree of the previously forsaken orange-ish mash, I sautee some mustard greens, cook a cup of red quinoa and add all of this with a few cranks of dried red pepper and NOW we are talking soup.  Grab some chunky bread and a chunky red.
     Motto of this story:  Don't let a dull meal beat you down.  Show that pot who is boss, and never leave home without your magical blender stick. 

Soundtrack, played over and over, while stumbling down this pumpkin strewn road: Bearded Ladies, various artists compilation of gothy-folky ladies on B Music, put together by Jane Weaver.

Roasted Pumpkin, White Bean, Quinoa and Swiss Chard soup

Roast 3 Lb (or more...) pumpkin while cooking stock and beans:
Open pumpkin and remove seeds and stringy bits.  Cut up into 2" slices, and place in a non-metal roasting pan along with enough cider or apple juice to cover bottom of pan.  Sprinkle cinnamon and drizzle honey on top.  Cover with foil, and cook at 375 degrees until tender.  Check occasionally to make sure the liquid doesn't dry up, add more if needed.)

STOCK
6 cups vegetable stock
1 1/2 cups leek greens, chopped and washed
5 parsley branches
4  large cloves of whole peeled garlic

Put all ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for 30 minutes then strain.

BEANS   
1/2 cup small white beans
3 fresh sage leaves or 1/2 tsp dried sage
2 large cloves of whole, peeled garlic
2 bay leaves
2 thyme branches
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cover  beans with water and soak over night, or do a quick soak (see above).  Pour off soaking water and put in pot with rest of ingredients and bring to a boil.   Skim off any foam that rises to the top.  Lower heat and cook beans at a slow boil for 45-60 minutes, until tender.  Drain beans and reserve the cooking water.

VEGGIES
3 Lbs of roasted pumpkin, removed from skin and cut into 1/2" pieces
2Tbl olive oil
3 leeks, white parts only, quartered and cut into 1/4" pieces
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2" bits
3 outer stalks of celery, diced into 1/4" bits
1 large clove of finely minced garlic
2  sage leaves or 1/4 teaspoon dried
Stock
reserved cooking water from the beans
one bunch of mustard greens, chopped into small pieces and sauteed
one cup of quinoa, cooked (I like the inca red for the color and hearty flavor)
red and black pepper

Warm the oil in a soup pot and add the pumpkin, vegetables (except mustard greens), garlic, sage and salt.  Stir to coat everything with oil and cook over medium to low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Pour in stock and cooking water from beans, about 8 cups in all.  Bring to a boil; then lower heat and simmer for about 1/2 hour.  Add the beans and continue cooking for another 15 minutes.  Taste for salt, and season with more if needed, and a few generous grinds of red and black pepper.  Turn off heat and puree with a blender stick, while still in the soup pot.  (or transfer to a blender and puree in batches).  Add cooked quinoa, and mustard greens.  Serve with a dribble of olive oil across the top. 

Comments

[Dale Hazelton]

mmmmm. punkin soup...

My wife cut up a pumpkin once and spread the seeds out on a cookie sheet to dry. I put it out on the front porch so the sun could dry them quicker and an hour or two later I heard a big ruckus out there. A few blue jays discovered the seeds and just about had them finished off by the time I chased them away. She dries her seeds in the oven now.

I heard that the type of pumpkins sold for decoration are not especially tasty. I think they might even be a different species from the ones that you buy in cans, which are not as photogenic.

I am very impressed with your freeform cooking style! That is how real cooks cook...

[listener carl]

Very good tips, thanks. Sunday Jan 27 is the JC soup swap that started up last year. People bring 4 quarts frozen homemade soup and then trade or swap. There is a post about it on JClist, or if you want more info, write me. Cheers