Roasted Butternut or Tomato Soup (or both!)??

Sometime in early October the shadows fall over my vegetable garden and I know that any tomatoes still on the vine will never turn red. A friend taught me to put the unripe tomatoes in a brown bag and wait. Eventually most of them will turn reddish; nothing like a ripe summer tomato but good enough to turn into salsa or roasted tomato soup.

 I ended up with a bunch of ugly, blemished, not-so-ripe tomatoes from the garden and was thinking of making the roasted tomato soup. But then I also had a lovely butternut squash and kind of felt like making that into soup. So I decided to roast both together and make a roasted tomato-butternut soup. The result was delicious.

Peel and cube a butternut squash; place in roasting pan.
Quarter a bunch of plum tomatoes or any tomato you have that is blemished, ugly, or about to become compost; place in roasting pan.
Add garlic cloves, shallots or onions, or any combination.
Add a fresh herb; basil or rosemary or sage.
Add 1 Tbsp olive oil and a few pinches sea salt.
Roast at 400 degrees for 20 min, stir and roast another 20 min or until squash is tender enough to pierce with a fork.
Remove from oven and let cool.
Once the vegetables are cool, puree in blender then add to soup pot. At this point you can thin the thick puree with veg broth or water or add some coconut milk. Season further with additional herbs. Add some white wine if desired. Reheat until desired temp is reached. Serve garnished with freshly chopped herbs if you have them (parsley, basil, cilantro etc).

Last Call for Corn Chowder!

This is our lovely campsite

 and our delicious meal of vegan corn chowder and salads of veggies from the garden.

Every year we make a trek to the Adirondacks for some R&R and getting back to nature. We have been enjoying the Long Lake area for many years, mostly camping with our tent, occasionally being forced in to the Adirondack Hotel when it was pouring, and once we rented a place on the lake and pretended we lived there.

 The Adirondacks is a wonderful place to hike, canoe and kayak. There just isn't very much in the way of vegetarian food in the restaurants, although you can now find tofu, hummus, soy milk, frozen veggie burgers, frozen Ezekiel breads and lots of Bob's Red Mill products at the Northern Borne grocery in Long Lake. Further north in Saranac Lake is Nori's Village Market where you can stock up on all kinds of natural foods. In recent years there have been more and more places to purchase veg foods throughout the 'Dacks but still not much of it in Long Lake. So we bring our own, and enjoy gourmet camping meals by the side of the lake with the loons crying their mournful call.

And don't forget the Pinot Grigio.

Following is the recipe for the chowder. If you can still get a half-dozen ears of corn from your farmer's market, you can make the soup. All of the other ingredients are available year-round. Coconut milk makes the chowder very rich and creamy, you won't miss the dairy at all. Although the chowder is pureed, I like to keep a couple cups of the soup chunky which adds a great texture. Set your outside table and pretend you're camping.....enjoy.



Corn Chowder
6 ears fresh corn
2 onions, chopped
1 large clove garlic

2 fist-sized potatoes, diced
1 cup diced carrots
1 cup diced celery
1 small can chopped green chilis
1 can coconut milk (full fat)
1 cup chopped cilantro
Cut the corn off the cobs (reserve the corn) and place the cobs in a large stock pot with 8 cups water (to cover). Boil until you get a corn stock and the liquid is reduced by about half. Remove the cobs and set the stock aside.
In a large soup pot saute the onions in 1 Tbsp grapeseed oil over medium heat.
Add carrots, potatoes, celery, garlic and saute a few minutes more.
Add the corn stock (about 4 cups) and the corn and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until potato can be pierced with a fork.
Cool the soup and then blend (you may need to do this in batches), but leave some of the vegetables unblended. Add the puree back to the pot and add to this the green chilis, coconut milk and cilantro. Cook over low flame until heated through.
Season with salt and pepper.