Cambodian Spiced Pumpkin Soup
Jet lag brings out the worst in me, and after 36 hours of travel to reach Paul in Cambodia, I was tipsy with sleep deprivation and drooping with hunger. Ignoring my desperate mutterings about going to sleep, Paul grabbed a moto driver and whisked us across town to Friends, a non-profit restaurant and job training center for at risk youth. I ordered half the menu in my hunger, and recall finding it all delicious with one exception...the pumpkin soup was outstanding! The flavor was deep with a warming blend of spices set off by a rich coconut and pumpkin base. I begged the cooks for the recipe, and they rattled off a long list of spices. I have been obsessively trying to recreate that soup for many years. This Cambodian Spiced Pumpkin Soup is a Westernized version that brings me back. The recipe base was inspired by Bon Appetit.
Yield: Serves 6 as a main
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 medium ripe bananas, chopped
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon dried sage leaves
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 bay leaves
- 5 cups low-salt chicken or vegetable broth (reduce salt in recipe if not using low salt broth)
- 1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree
- 2 (13.5 ounce) cans unsweetened coconut milk
- 1-2 teaspoons soy sauce or fish sauce (optional)
- fresh cilantro, yogurt, pumpkin seeds (optional garnish)
Steps:
- Heat a large pot over medium high heat. Add butter, carrot, banana, onions and garlic. Reduce heat to medium and cook stirring frequently for 8-10 minutes, until onion is translucent and vegetables are soft.
- Add spices and salt (nutmeg, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, coriander, sage, allspice, curry, cayenne, salt) and cook for 1 minute until spices are fragrant.
- Add bay leaves, broth, pumpkin and coconut milk and bring to a boil.
- Once soup comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Puree soup until smooth. Adjust seasonings to your preference, we like to balance out the warming spices by adding 1-2 teaspoons soy sauce or fish sauce to the soup. This soup can be quite thick, adjust the texture by adding water, broth or yogurt to achieve your desired thickness.
- Serve warm with yogurt, cilantro, and pumpkin seeds.
Haitian Squash Soup, Soup Joumou
Dieujuste Saint-Surain stands in his field in Senk-Pòt, Haiti, holding up two freshly harvested joumou (Haitian Creole for calabaza squash). “To me, joumou means life, it means independence and it means the dignity of feeding my family with the food I grow,” says Saint-Surain.
Following a long-fought independence from colonialism and slavery, Haitians developed a unique tradition of hospitality, celebration, and generosity centered around a simple meal: soup joumou. This well-loved Haitian dish is a hearty squash soup with meat and local vegetables. Soup joumou is shared widely with friends and neighbors on Haitian Independence Day, for Sunday breakfast, and at community celebrations.
As Haitians take stock of the devastation of Hurricane Mathew, the spicy complexity and heritage of Soup Joumou is a reminder of a strong people, and a proud history of incredible resilience and independence in the face of daunting odds.
Vietnamese Chicken Soup, Phở Gà
Food has the power to connect us to people and places around the world. In 2007, Rebecca and I spent three months traveling through South East Asia together. Leaving Cambodia on the back of moto-bikes, we arrived for the night, hot and dusty, in a small village in rural Vietnam. After dropping off our packs, we sat down on the rickety plastic stools of the town's only food stand, famished. Without asking what we wanted, two pungent bowls of Phở Gà, Vietnam's famous chicken noodle soup, were plunked down in front of us. We were hooked! As we made our way north over the next several weeks, we enjoyed many local variations of Phở: from the dark, rich, and beefy to bright and spicy with shrimp. Our favorite Phở, on which our recipe is based, was eaten from steaming bowls one early morning overlooking Hạ Long Bay. This version used chicken that had been marinated and grilled, rather than boiled in the soup, giving it a crispy texture and sweet charred flavor.
Each sip of flavorful broth reminds us also of the people and culture that created it. Phở is an aromatic and visual dish, one that we like to serve in our Vietnamese blue petal bowls made in the Kinh family workshop in the famous pottery village of Bat Trang, Vietnam. By partnering with a local non-profit and Ten Thousand Villages, women potters are able to make a living for their families, continue a rich cultural tradition, and gain access to tools, education, training, interest-free loans, and literacy classes. We buy many of our dishes and gifts from Ten Thousand Villages each year, and appreciate their commitment to ethical partnerships with local artisans around the world.
French Cabbage Soup, Garbure Gasconne
Blustering snow and icy rains found us craving a hearty soup this week. Gazing down the steep cobblestone hills winding down from our house, we opted for caution, and a pantry raid, in favor of driving. For our winter-storm-fare, we dunked homemade sourdough bread in aromatic bowls of French Cabbage Soup, and dreamed of beaches! Our recipe for French Cabbage Soup, Garbure Gasconne, is a modified version of this delicious cabbage soup from the French region of Gascony. This soup smartly employs steaming and simmering techniques to gently extract the delicate flavors from winter root vegetables. French Cabbage Soup is a warming vegetable soup with a depth of flavor that far exceeds its humble ingredients.
Carrot Coconut Soup
Carrot Coconut Soup is made in under 30 minutes and uses a genius recipe from James Peterson. We love Peterson's cookbooks so much that we originally named our rescue greyhound ‘James Peterson’ in his honor. To our chagrin, we quickly discovered two names and multiple syllables to be far too overwhelming for a greyhound with limited life skills. Now, he just answers to Leo. Carrot Coconut Soup builds flavor from a sauté of carrots in butter, with an unusual thickener of rice, finished with coconut milk and curry to round out this delicious soup . Easy pantry ingredients, foolproof technique, and lovely bold flavors!
Sweet Pea Soup
Sometimes, we get a little absorbed in enjoying food, and forget the broader context of our speech. We had our good friends Beth and Justin over for dinner this weekend. Our spoons stopped mid-slurp, and we all did a double take when Rebecca enthusiastically proclaimed: "I love this soup, the pea-ness really shines through!"
Allow me to say it another way, this is great, quick sweet pea soup. The gentle cooking lets the subtle and sweet pea flavor star. Sweet Pea Soup is a dish I request often (usually with Rebecca's awesome Buttermilk Biscuits). There’s nothing as satisfying as a vibrant green soup to fight the rainy grays of March.
