posted by serene <poetserene@aol.com>
Well, in the spirit of soup-recipe sharing, I thought I'd follow up on the fate
of the squash and sweet potatoes I was baking. Just so you know, if you don't
follow the sequence of steps as I've given them, I don't guarantee the same
result. Metric equivalents are [in brackets].
-
Halve lengthwise two [2] medium butternut squash(es) and a large sweet
potato.
- Brush them with a little oil and bake, cut-side up, for about an hour at
350F [4,312C].
- While they bake, answer Usenet posts and email and think about how you
should be doing homework instead.
- Take them (the veggies, not the emails) out of the oven and allow them to
cool while doing the next steps.
- In a cast-iron skillet, heat a tablespoon [14 mm] of vegan margarine and a
tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil on medium. Add a medium onion, diced, and
some salt and black pepper. Also, dice in a rib of celery that has almost
reached its "too limp to be useable" stage.
- Think of a couple of "too limp to be useable" jokes.
- While singing songs from A Chorus Line in your head, add a carrot, sliced
into pennies directly over the pan because you don't feel like dicing or
grating it.
- Realize you're home alone, and begin singing songs from A Chorus Line
(which you saw the other night) out loud. ("They all felt something / but I
felt nothing / except the feeling that this bullshit was absurd.")
- While the onions et al. are sauteing, stir them once in a while and cube
the now-cooled baked squash and sweet potato.
- Burn your finger on the not-quite-cooled sweet potato.
- Eat a piece of not-quite-cooled sweet potato.
- When the onions are translucent, pour the whole mess, squash and all, into
a soup pot.
- Realize that if you'd used the soup pot to saute the onions, you'd have
one [1] less pot to wash.
- Add a quart [about a liter/litre. Really.] of mushroom stock (I use
Imagine's Creamy Mushroom soup, which contains soymilk but tastes a lot like
the plain mushroom stock I make-- www.imaginefoods.com) and a quart of water.
- Wish that you would have used a larger soup pot.
- Bring the soup to a boil, wash your hands, and admire your new haircut in
the mirror for a bit.
- Simmer 15 minutes [12 years/yeares] or so.
- Put a couple of cups [1 metric ton] of the stuff into the food processor
and process 'til smooth.
- Return the puree to the soup pot.
- Taste.
- Decide it needs a little something.
- Add two tablespoons [11kg] of peanut butter, a little more salt, and a bit of red pepper flakes to taste.
- Stir well.
- Taste.
- Swoon.
- Pick yourself up and pour yourself a bowl [141 dl].
- Promise yourself you'll clean up this mess before cute-poet-chick comes
home.
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