Soup Week 8 - WHITE PINTO BEAN & SQUASH SOUP

Scored big at the annual Lions Super Flea Market -- a farmer from Langham was selling her lentils, chickpeas and white pinto beans. White pinto beans are a new variety bred by the University of Saskatchewan for export to the US and Mexico. As far as I know, they aren't for sale in Saskatchewan, except perhaps at the Super Flea Market!

Pictured is my new soup pot.


Pinto Bean and Squash Soup
A good soup begins with a good stock. Good stock is made at home. I save all vegetable scraps in the freezer (onion ends, carrot peels, celery trimming, herb stems, tomato peels, etc.) and use them to make vegetable stock: place all the vegetable scraps in a pot of water, add a bay leaf and a few peppercorns, boil, simmer for an hour or two (lid off), cool and strain. Discard the vegetables (ie: compost).

2 tbsp canola oil
2 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrot
3 big cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tsp mixed dried oregano and thyme
6 cups vegetable stock
2 cups squash, small dice
4 cups cooked pinto beans
3 tbsp tomato paste
salt and pepper to taste
cheddar cheese for garnish

Heat the oil in a soup pot. Add the onion to cook while you chop the celery, carrots and garlic. Stir these into the onions and cook until the veggies start to soften. Stir in the herbs.

When the veggies are soft and starting to stick to the pot, add the stock, squash and pinto beans. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer until the squash is cooked, about 20 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste. Season with salt and pepper to your taste.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with grated cheddar cheese. Like just about all soups, this one is better the next day. If you can wait.

Soup Week 1 - PEAR & SQUASH SOUP

In keeping with my New Year's resolution ~ to make a pot of soup every week, preferably a different soup each time ~ I made this pear and curry flavoured soup for guests ~ Tom and Eva, with their daughter Magda and her husbad Lars. I used local pears I picked and canned last August. Mmmm a bite of summer...

Curried Pear and Acorn Squash Soup
1 acorn squash
2 tbsp butter
1 large onion in thin slices
1-2 tbsp curry powder
Salt & white pepper
4 cups water
1 cup chopped canned pears and their juice (about 1/2 cup juice)
1/2 cup cream
cooked wild rice

Peel, seed and chop the squash into small chunks. You should have 4-5 cups of squash.

Melt the butter in a soup pot and sauté the onions. When the onions have softened, stir in 1 tbsp curry powder, salt and pepper. Cook until the onions are soft. Add the water and the squash. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer, covered, until the squash can be pierced with a fork (about 30 min). Add the chopped pears and juice. Cook another 15 min.

Remove from the heat and cool. Purée the soup in a blender. Return the soup to the pot. Taste for seasoning and add more curry powder if you like it hotter. Stir in the cream and heat, but don't boil. To serve, ladle the soup into a bowl and place a spoonful of rice in the centre.

Newspaper - PEAR AND BUTTERNUT SOUP

(Thic column was first published in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix on 19 December 2005.)

I have a confession to make. I bought a box of Christmas oranges. This may seem innocent enough to you, but it is a brazen violation of my Saskatchewan-only diet. For one full year, I am attempting to eat only Saskatchewan foods in my own home. No orange, banana, mango or tasteless strawberry has graced my door since April.

Until now. What came over me? There I was in the Co-op grocery store picking up Saskatchewan cheese and sausage, drifting right past the produce section, when my cart bumped into a stack of orange boxes direct from China. I had a flash of childhood Christmases, discovering an orange in the bottom of my stocking and studiously removing the peel in one whole piece. I remembered the pioneer stories about jubilant children who got their only orange of the entire year at Christmas time. If it was a luxury of the pioneer diet, then surely I could justify a few zipper oranges in my own shopping cart at Christmas.

Not that my diet really resembles that of the pioneers. Eating locally is much different today. We grow so many more foods in Saskatchewan than the pioneers ever thought possible and we have freezers to keep them in.

As I write, I am awaiting delivery of half a pig – cut, wrapped and cured – from a local organic farm. Yesterday, I made ricotta cheese with local milk. And Canada Post has just delivered a box of Saskatchewan sprouting seeds for my cheese sandwiches this winter.

Why am I doing this? It seemed an appropriate challenge for Saskatchewan’s centennial year. But that is not my prime motivation. I want to support local farmers and processors, eat healthier tastier food, and cut the fossil fuels expended getting dinner to my plate. When you consider that most of our fruits and vegetables travel upwards of 1,500 kilometres, it’s a major contribution to pollution and greenhouse gas. I like to travel, but I like my vegetables to stay close to home.

To be truthful, I do purchase "foreign" food items if I need them for a mostly Saskatchewan recipe when there is no local equivalent. The other day I made a Russian salad with beets, carrots, potatoes, egg and pickled herring. That was followed by a pork and apricot stew and for dessert, cookies sprinkled with icing sugar. Astute readers will know that herring, apricots and icing sugar are not from here. But they do wonderful things for the foods that are.

This Christmas dinner, I will be serving a ham with a honey-mustard glaze, the herring salad and a coleslaw. My sister is bringing homemade perogies. Perhaps we’ll start with a curried soup of pear and butternut squash and finish with a saskatoon pie. Happy Holidays! (For the other recipes, go to homefordinner.blogspot.com.)

CURRIED PEAR AND BUTTERNUT SOUP
I use Calcutta Curry produced in Saskatoon by Chatty’s Indian Foods. You can use a generic curry powder but it won’t be as good! You can buy it (and the vegetables) at the Saturday Farmers’ Market. As for the pears, I canned them last fall from a tree on Temperance Street.

1 large butternut squash
2T butter
1 large onion in thin slices
3T curry powder
Salt & white pepper
4C water
1 cup chopped canned pears and their juice
1/2 cup cream

Peel, seed and chop the butternut squash into small chunks. You should have 4-5 cups of squash. Melt the butter in a soup pot and sauté the onions. When the onions are softened, stir in the curry powder, salt and pepper to taste. Continue cooking until the onions are quite soft.
Add the water and the squash. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer, covered, until the squash can be pierced with a fork (about 30 minutes). Add the pears and juice. Cook another 15 minutes.
Remove from the heat and cool. Purée the soup in a blender. Return to a clean pot and add the cream. If it looks too thick, add more water to reach your desired consistency. Reheat and serve.