squash soup
So we have a bumper crop of yellow squash out of my dad's garden, like we do every summer. I'm not really keen on yellow squash (I wouldn't eat it at all until I was at least 18), but I need to figure out ways to cook it. I heard there was a good creamy squash soup with basil, so after consulting the internets I decided to give it a try.
What I learned: NEVER ADD WALNUTS to SQUASH SOUP
My recipe guidelines:
Coat the bottom of a deep skillet with melted margarine
Chop:
about 4 medium Yellow squash
1 normal sized potato
2 onions
1.5 tomatoes
Cook until very tender with chicken broth and a little lemon juice, enough liquid to make it into a really thick stew
Puree with blender
Season to taste with salt, pepper, basil, rosemary, a bit of nutmeg, a dash of ground oregano, and a pinch of savory. At this point It tastes good, but should be a tiny bit richer.
Puree with blender:
about 3/4 cup sour cream
a little of the soup
a handful of walnuts
Where things go wrong:
When I add the walnuts/sour cream the soup turns from a lovely pale golden color to a disgusting purple/gray.
Attempts to fix this:
Paprika (lots - would consider using as garnish even if I didn't have the color problems)
Yellow food coloring
a little tumeric
a little ketchup
Trying to fix it makes it worse (brown instead of purple grey is not a more appetizing color) but does not make the soup taste bad.
I added it back to the pan to heat it all up, and had to thin it with milk.
I ended up with really tasty soup that looks horrible, and is a little too rich. If I had to do this again, I would omit the potato, because it was too thick in the end, definitely leave out the walnuts (though a few other nuts might give it a good flavor), and use less butter/sour cream/milk/nut in general to make it more vegetable and less rich. It could also stand more tomato.
So yeah, that's what I learned from making squash soup.
Also, there I times I really like my job. Like when my boss says "thank you so much" after I stay late to help finish an experiment. I feel so much more appreciated than I did in my last gig.
What I learned: NEVER ADD WALNUTS to SQUASH SOUP
My recipe guidelines:
Coat the bottom of a deep skillet with melted margarine
Chop:
about 4 medium Yellow squash
1 normal sized potato
2 onions
1.5 tomatoes
Cook until very tender with chicken broth and a little lemon juice, enough liquid to make it into a really thick stew
Puree with blender
Season to taste with salt, pepper, basil, rosemary, a bit of nutmeg, a dash of ground oregano, and a pinch of savory. At this point It tastes good, but should be a tiny bit richer.
Puree with blender:
about 3/4 cup sour cream
a little of the soup
a handful of walnuts
Where things go wrong:
When I add the walnuts/sour cream the soup turns from a lovely pale golden color to a disgusting purple/gray.
Attempts to fix this:
Paprika (lots - would consider using as garnish even if I didn't have the color problems)
Yellow food coloring
a little tumeric
a little ketchup
Trying to fix it makes it worse (brown instead of purple grey is not a more appetizing color) but does not make the soup taste bad.
I added it back to the pan to heat it all up, and had to thin it with milk.
I ended up with really tasty soup that looks horrible, and is a little too rich. If I had to do this again, I would omit the potato, because it was too thick in the end, definitely leave out the walnuts (though a few other nuts might give it a good flavor), and use less butter/sour cream/milk/nut in general to make it more vegetable and less rich. It could also stand more tomato.
So yeah, that's what I learned from making squash soup.
Also, there I times I really like my job. Like when my boss says "thank you so much" after I stay late to help finish an experiment. I feel so much more appreciated than I did in my last gig.