Orange Soup

Well I didn't know what else to call the soup because I used carrots, butternut squash and sweet potatoes....oh, and orange juice.

THE RECIPE......

Prepared:
4 C. Diced Carrots
2 C. Cubed Butternut Squash (which I had left over from Veganomicon - Butternut Squash Rice
Paper Rolls - I love these things...I've made them twice so far! no pics though)
2 C. Cubed Sweet Potatoes

In large pot, combine above veggies with:
3 C. Water
1 C. Orange Juice
1 small Veggie Bullion Cube (optional, I didn’t add salt)

Cook until veggies are tender.

In the mean time- Saute:
4 tsp. vegan butter
1 C. Chopped Onion
3 Cloves of chopped garlic
1 tsp. of chopped hot pepper—I used Serranos (optional)

After the above has sautéed for a few minutes add:
1 tsp Curry Powder Seasoning (this had ginger, cinnamon, cloves etc. in it too)
1 Tbs. Fresh Grated Ginger (think 1.5 tsp would be good next time)
1 Tbs. of Dried Parsley
Fresh Ground Pepper to taste.

When the sautéing is complete, add 1/2 C. of Ground Cashews (measured before grinding) – Here, I used raw cashews, I think toasted cashews would be good too, or you can just leave the nuts out altogether….I’m easy like that.

Now add the sautéed mixture to the cooked veggies (no not drain).
Add 1 C. of Soymilk

With my emulsion blender, I love love this thing, I blended it smooth.
Tasted it, humm, Goods tasted it- I made the following additions:
1 C. of Orange juice
1 more Sweet Potato (I had one in the freezer just waiting to become sweet potato biscuits)

By adding the extra items, it tamed down the ginger that was a tad strong, and it you now could taste a hint of Orange in it, which I was striving for.

Then I heated again for 15 minutes. I served with a sprinkle of toasted pumpkin seeds and some croutons.

I give this a 4 out of 5 forks. I need to play with the seasonings some. I would make this again, but it won't be for a while, I made a TON.

I'll end with a photo of Guido playing with her imaginary carrot--really, she plays with a lot of imaginary things.

Okay- I'm almost ending with Guido.

If you are from the Detroit area, there is a restaurant in Grosse Pointe that we went to Saturday night that Goods and I both very much enjoyed. The name of the joint is "City Kitchen" I've included a link. The atmosphere was great, we sat at the bar- THE NON-SMOKING BAR! The whole restaurant is NON-SMOKING. The food was great, they went out of their way to make my meal vegan (even checking their pasta lables!) - I had a pasta with veggies in a wine sauce - sorry no pics THIS TIME. Oh, and I had a super spinach salad with jalapeno mango dressing. The people were extremely friendly, both the people that work there and the patrons.

Okay, NOW I'm ending.