Looks like I’ll be cooking for one a lot in the next days, or weeks. My daughter went to visit my mom and it doesn’t seem like she’s in a hurry to come back and my son, well, he’s barely ever home anymore. That’s what happens when kids grow up. They tend to have a life, you know…
Cooking for one is a challenge in itself. A challenge that I look at positively though, for it allows me to experiment with ingredients that I wouldn’t otherwise dare… I wouldn’t want my kids to leave me indefinitely, you see… at least, not yet!
I think tonight’s dish definitely falls in that category. None of them would have been too impressed with my choice of ingredients for the soup that I made. See, I had some sweet potatoes that really needed to be eaten, so I decided to steam them and make some mini breads.But I had way too much and ended up with probably 2 cups left. I figured if I mixed that with roasted acorn squash and added an onion, some chicken stock and a few spices, that it would make a very decent soup. And I was soooooo right! It made an incredibly decent soup. So nice, soft and creamy, I would even say silky. And the taste! Even better than I expected. A little bit on the sweet side, yet not too sweet, with a subtle touch of cinnamon and nutmeg. Plus, the pecans that I used as garnish did so much for it too. I’m really glad I have some leftover!
What I am not glad about though is that I didn’t measure anything. Still, I’ll try and retrace my steps. It’s not like I used a million ingredients. It shouldn’t be that hard to eyeball it. And the results should be pretty similar. Let’s give it a shot, shall we?
Ingredients
(serves 2-3)
- About 2 cups steamed sweet potatoes
- The flesh of 1 roasted acorn squash
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- ½ tsp salted herbs
- 3 cups chicken stock (use vegetable if you want to keep this vegetarian friendly)
- ½ cup low fat sour cream
- Pinch 4 spice (nutmeg, ginger, clove, pepper)
- Pinch cinnamon
Garnish
- Chopped pecans and
- Chopped flat leaf parlsey
- Dollop low fat sour cream
Instructions
- Cut acorn squash in half, remove seeds and roast flesh side down in a 375 oF oven for about 40 minutes, or until tender.
- Peel, dice and steam sweet potatoes for about 7 minutes
- In saucepan, brown onion and garlic. Add cooked potatoes and squash and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add salted herbs, 4 spice, cinnamon and chicken stock. Bring to a boil then simmer for 5 minutes.
- Purée the soup in a food processor. Return to saucepan and add sour cream. Stir to combine.
- Serve and garnish with a dollop of sour cream, chopped pecans and flat leaf parsley.
Since I started my blog I’ve acquired a spiral bound steno pad that I keep in the kitchen while I cook. I jot down all the little notes that would otherwise forget of things I use in a dish or ideas that would make it better. It’s nice to not have to recall all of the tweaks to a dish using my own memory.
I’m stoked about everything this meal has to offer mostly the squash and sweet potato…my kids don’t have the luxury of missing out on this kitchen experiment. I think I’ll crumble bacon on top, doesn’t that make everything a little more palpable….at least for kids.
Hey, I’ve wisened up since. I now have a trusty spiral bound notebook that follows me (almost) everywhere. I write down, note, measure pretty much everything I eat! Then I log it on the Internet. That way, I never forget! And I even get a picture to remember what the dish looked like. BONUS!
I hope you and your kids like the soup if you end up trying it. As for the bacon, I’m not sure. I remember the toasted pecans worked FANTASTIC with that soup. I hope the bacon does too!
Great, now you got me craving that soup… guess I’ll have to do a repeat on that one soon!