Soup Season vs Sick Season

Who doesn’t love a good soup?  Especially when you’re on the mend from a chest infection AND wake up to -15 windchill amiright??

But first – to reflect back on my recent amateur bout, which I won by UD.  I was coming down with something a few days prior and nursed it as best I could and of course, made the adult, conscious decision to do it no matter what.  I told myself that it’s mind over matter for 3x 1 minute rounds (which I later found out was 3x 1.5 minute rounds), my conditioning was killa, and I knew 100% I peaked at the right time during training to enter into competition.  All of the aforementioned was and is true but at the end of the bout my chest and lungs felt like someone lit something on fire inside of me.

I remember between round 2 and 3 I was trying to tell my coach through my mouthpiece and the cheering noise “my chest, my chest” and looking at him in coach mode I figured “well, he’s ignoring me so I guess I gotta go finish this”.  I watched that last round and was very proud of how I pushed my fierce opponent who, btw was my first southpaw…until the 10 second clap that is, when I danced around her to the final bell.  Coach did say after he had no idea what I was trying to tell him at that time lol.  Fast forward a few days later, diagnosed with a chest infection, prescribed antibiotics and told to rest.  This week, rest was the plan but I think my body was just pissed off with me the day after the fight so I got all the extras.

Back to my soup of the day!  I’ve named it DOUBLE BAKED AND SLOW ROASTED COMFORT SOUP – for effect but also, that’s what I did.

After the first bake. Looking good.

I must preface and promise that I will get better at measuring ingredients.  Like all the awesome women and men I’ve gathered my cooking skills from, most of my recipes are in my head and the ones I do write down I switch  up a little each time I prepare it.  I just eyeball the seasoning to ingredients ratio and go from there.  This may sound cheesy, but it’s a feeling.

I don’t think I mentioned – this soup is vegetarian and vegan and you can keep it vegan if unlike me you don’t add feta as a topping.  All about options right!

I also don’t cook with salt – yes, you read that right.  I only do when I have people over or making something for a potluck and ok, on the very rare occasion at home but when I do it’s Pink Himalayan Salt.  Why no salt?  A few reasons but 1) my late father in law was diabetic and his diet included little to no salt.  When I started dating my husband I was always at their house and ate almost every meal there so I just got used to it.  My late mom in law was a badass home cook so it wasn’t hard and 2) over the years I realized and learnt that flavor does not mean salt.  There are so many ingredients both fresh and dried that you can use.  This is my personal opinion so take it with a grain of salt – ha!  I’ll work on the measuring going forward.  For now, enjoy!

Thankfully, I was working from home due to the sickness and found myself having to take a nap in the afternoon from all the coughing.  After dropping off the mini at school that morning I decided it’s a soup making day and even though I always have some in the freezer from a previous batch, I was feeling good so you know, something new and fresh was good.  Scanned the kitchen I found some stuff and yeah, we got ourselves a soup.   A few vegetables and some seasoning is good but,  I also have work to do so it has to be something easy and I decide it’s a roasted vegetable in the oven party.  Believe me when I say that I got back from the school, found the veggies, cut & washed them, seasoned and in the oven so fast I was at my laptop working by 8.40 AM.

I found a large-ish winter squash, specifically acorn squash, 1 large sweet potato, 2 large carrots and a couple of red onions oh and a can of lite coconut milk.  My seasoning was again little of this and that with some love sprinkles to make it all hearty and – ha!  Twice in one post.  So here are the details of the recipe and it made quite the batch!

Double baked and slow roasted comfort soup:

Ingredients

• 1 large acorn squash
• 1 large sweet potato
• 2 large carrots
• 2 medium red onions
• 1 can lite coconut milk
• Broth – 4 cups approximately
• 1 TBS crushed garlic
• 2 by leaves
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• Half tsp ground cloves
• Half tsp ground all spice
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 TBS Mrs Dash
• Ground black pepper
• Salt (optional)

Method

1. Preheat oven to bake at 300
2. Peel, wash and cut vegetables into chunks
   1. I scooped all the seeds out of the squash but left the skin on and scooped out when it cooled a little
3. Add all the seasoning and about half the broth
4. Bake closed with foil for 1 hour
5. Bake uncovered for 1 hour
6. Roast or broil for hour
7. Cool for a bit
8. Puree in food processor (I have a vitamix)
   1. The consistency will be thick so you need to add some additional broth/coconut milk to get to the desired consistency
9. Transfer to pot and simmer prior to serving adding the coconut milk if still thick
10. Optional parsley or cilantro
11. I served with toasted ciabatta buns and sprinkled some feta cheese but for the vegans I’d sprinkle some pumpkin seeds or the like

So, to summarize – it was delicious and while it must be the slow roasting  giving that extra flavor, I’m sure you don’t have to do it that way at all.  Nutritious, will feed a cold/flu or chest infection in my case and fuel for any athlete taking a few days of recovery post competition.

This recipe made 6 good servings but if it’s for an appetizer I’d say 8-10 easy.  The consistency is thick and creamy given the vegetables I used but we loved it!

Enjoy.  Leave a comment or share what your favorite soup of the season is!