Help, I’m Drowning In Summer Squash (AKA, here’s a great Curried Squash Soup Recipe!)

  I was desperately looking through recipes trying to find something to do with all of this extra squash I suddenly have on hand. Normally, I have tons of zucchini and have found ways to use it up BUT for some reason none of my zucchini plants were happy this year. May have something to do with being on bed rest, ya think?

No luck on something sounding like a recipe my overly finicky tastebuds would like right about now. Yellow squash is, well, slimy if not handled correctly. Most of the recipes seemed like they just encouraged that in the final dish.

Unlike most normal people, I actually enjoy a nice soup when the weather is hot. Simple to prepare, light and not too heavy on the calories. An added plus is finding yet another way to get more vegetables into my diet. So I looked at some ideas from other peoples recipes and decided to use a trick I learned when I came up with my cream of asparagus soup- add potato for richness and to balance out the slippery mouth feel that pureed squash is known for.

I liked the idea of adding curry and ginger to give the soup an oriental twist. Sure enough, the recipe works for me. You may feel the need to adjust the amount of curry, even adding more chicken broth if you feel the need- go ahead, it’s your soup after all!

Curried Yellow Squash & Potato Soup

• 1 onion, minced
• 1 potato, diced
• 2 medium yellow squash, diced
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 Tbsp Fresh Ginger, minced
• 1 clove Garlic, minced
• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
• 1 Tbsp Curry Paste or Powder (add more to taste)
• 4 cups chicken stock
• ½ tsp salt (or to taste)
• 1 Tbsp Fresh parsley, finely minced

1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onion, potato and the squash until golden brown, about 10 minutes over medium heat.
2. Add the ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes and continue cooking for a couple more minutes to allow the fragrance of the ginger and garlic to come out.
3. Add the curry and stir in well. Now add in the stock and salt to taste. You may want to add a little more curry depending on how it tastes to you.
   Allow the soup to cool and using a stick blender, puree (or just pour into a regular blender if that’s what you have)
4. Reheat and place the soup into 2 soup bowls and sprinkle with the fresh parsley.

Serve with fresh, crusty rolls or flour tortillas that have been grilled  over high heat until brown spots appear.

Related articles

• Soups For The Summertime (jovinacooksitalian.com)
• Summer Squash Fritters from Aggie’s Kitchen (blogher.com)

No Flu Soup! Great idea if you’re under the weather- and tastes so good on a cold day

Image by Ewan McIntosh via Flickr

Thyme, onions, garlic and ginger are all supposed to have anti bacterial properties and have been used for centuries to bolster the family immune system during winter. If you sprinkle a layer of cheese on top before serving it can become a special version of French Onion Soup. At the very least it should help keep the vampires away!

No Flu Soup (Serves 4):

2 tbsp olive oil
6 medium-sized onions, sliced thin
1 Tablespoon Clerici Ranch Fresh Thyme, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 inch piece fresh ginger, minced
6 cups chicken broth made from bones of Clerici Ranch chickens
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash of hot sauce if desired
White cheese such as gruyere if desired

Thick slices of toasted bread to serve

Heat the olive oil in a stock pot and saute the onions slowly until lightly browned.
Add in the thyme, garlic and ginger and stir for a few minutes to release their aromas.
Add the broth and salt and pepper then splash in some hot sauce if desired.
Simmer for about 20 minutes stirring occasionally.

Place a slice of toasted bread in the bottom of your soup bowl, cover with soup.
Top with some of your favorite cheese if you like to round out the meal and enjoy!

Related Articles

• Chicken soup (independent.co.uk)
• French Onion Soup with Authentic French Baquette (leberpr.com)
• Italian Tomato Soup (notecook.com)

1001 ways to quickly prepare healthy chicken meals

Cover via Amazon

Ok- that should have got your attention.

I really wasn’t planning on typing out 1000 recipes, more like sharing some of my tricks for getting good food onto the table fast. What to do with that tasty free range bird you brought home after you exhaust the usual options of roasting or bbq’ing?

We (for obvious reasons) eat a lot of chicken here on the ranch. I prepare all the usuals- picatta, fried, sweet and sour, pot pie, etc. But being super busy (we have no outside help as we are just too small an operation to hire anyone- yet) my all time favorite way to cook my chickens is to poach a couple of birds and freeze the cooked meat in little pouches that will thaw quickly when needed.

I was pleased to see an article in the San Francisco Chronicle recently on the very subject! It explains the poaching process and gives several delicious ways to use the bounty when cooked.

They point out that a 5 pound chicken makes up at least 2 pounds of cooked meat once you take away the bones and the skin. Because there are normally only the two of us for dinner, that will make a generous 4-5 meals.

See the Poached Chicken master recipe (included in the above article) that can be used for many types of recipes. This can easily be adapted for other uses by leaving out the ginger and adding vegetables or herbs of your choice.

I also love the tip for making Uncle Yuen’s Chicken Sauce:

Combine 2 parts double strength chicken broth (the extra water is boiled off at the end of the chicken poaching time)

Add 1 part Oyster Sauce
A dash of pepper
A drop or two of toasted sesame oil

A recipe for summer vegetable salad with poached chicken, Banh Mi-Style Chicken Sandwiches and Glass Noodles with Napa Cabbage and Poached Chicken is also included for you to try. Thanks so much to Lynne Char Bennett

Homestyle Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

The next page of the newspaper brought yet another great use for poached chicken from the Green Chile Kitchen in San Fran (leave out the ginger for this one). If you don’t have access to fresh new mexico or anaheim chiles, go ahead and substitute canned ones.

Thanks Tilde Herrera for the great article!

Well that is 4 recipes to get you started but you won’t need to look very hard to find the other nine hundred something more. My favorite resource when I get stuck is my 1950 something edition of the Betty Crocker cookbook. It has so many good uses for “leftover” chicken (try the chicken ala king over toast points for true comfort food).