Tuesday, October 26, 2010

And the soup was born


Last weekend I had bought several kinds of squash. Peppercorn squash, butternut squash, spaghetti squash... The reason? I got to love them recently and they were really cheap. Lately, I have been experimenting with different types of squash. Quite successfully I might add. First, the safe way, I just put cut pieces with some turkey pieces in the oven. Then, I peeled it and baked it. Getting more comfortable. I even tried to make 'pasta' from spaghetti squash. The dish was very impressive and even my 4 year old ate it.
Today, I wanted to make the mashed squash. Peeled it, cut in to pieces and boiled it. The water, after boiling the squash, looked so good, that I didn't want to throw it out. So I made the soup. Kept on creating it as I went along the process and the result was so good, I decided to share it with you.
And the it is.

You will need:
1 butternut squash
ground meat
egg
stale bread or breadcrumbs
1 can 'Cream of mushroom'
chickpeas
salt and pepper to taste

Peel the squash and cut into pieces, as you would potato for the mashed potatoes. Boil the pieces in a medium size pot with about two to three cups of water for 10 minutes. Drain the squash, keeping the water they cooked in. Now prepare the little meat balls as you usually do. Or simply add an egg to your ground meat. Then put either soaked bread in hot water, or some bread crumbs. Season it with salt and pepper. If you are salt conscious as I am, you can get enough salt from bread. Usually, I use Italian bread crumbs. It already has added spices and even some parmesan cheese. Today, I used multi grain bread, because my bread crumbs were already packed into the boxes (we are moving in few days).
Add two more cups of water into your pot and a can of cream of mushroom. Whisk it well not leaving any pieces from the mushroom soup. When it starts to boil, slowly add small formed meat balls into the pot.
Then add chickpeas, squash pieces and a touch of thyme, if you have any. Or season to your liking with salt and pepper. The soup is born! I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.