Soup of the Week – Summer Squash Edition with a Berry Bonus

I love soup during the fall and winter months. My Mom does Soup of the Week at her house in the winter; make a big batch of something wonderful and keep it on hand for meals all week. We did that here this winter, but I never figured on getting hooked on soup in the summer.

Ever since I made the broccoli and cashew soup a little while ago, I’ve had soup on the brain. I actually made my first summer soup several weeks ago for Zilla’s birthday celebration. We found a lovely chilled Three-Berry Fruit Soup via Pinterest that she wanted as part of her menu (all self-selected). It has berries, avocado (I know – awesome secret ingredient), fruit juice, lemon, mint, ginger, mint, and yogurt.

And it’s pink – perfect for her, of course. This was a huge hit served in these little plastic cups at the party. Some people sipped, others used a spoon. The leftovers made for some fantastic homemade popsicles afterward! How’s that for double-duty?

One of the things I’ve been doing lately, thanks in great part to Tamar Adler’s book, is making decisions about meals based on what fresh produce I have, rather than planning menus solely based on what recipes look good to me in a book or online. Using available veggies for soup makes perfect sense. I hate when purchased produce doesn’t get used and ends up wasted. Thinking this way solves that problem and helps reduce the grocery bill a bit, too. Win!

With two weeks’ worth of abundant yellow summer squash, this Simple Summer Squash soup from TheKitchn seemed like just the thing. And it looks cool in a glass jar, so even better.

It’s fantastic, plain and simple. All you need is some squash, onion, vegetable broth, and a few seasoning items and you’re ready to go. I made only one slight variation to this. Well, two. The recipe calls for cumin seeds, but I only had ground cumin on hand. Easy. But it also calls for curry powder. Because I don’t particularly like the taste of curry, I do not have it in my cupboard. A quick dig in my substitutions resource revealed that a combination of ginger, allspice, and chili powder would do the trick. I don’t know if it does or not, since I’m not a curry person, but the end result was delicious.

I’ve been eating it with a dollop of plain non-fat Greek yogurt on top, which sinks, as you can tell from the picture. It’s OK – just stir it in or let it sit there and enjoy as you go. I finish it up by sprinkling a quick chop of my never-ending supply of basil and a little crushed red pepper on top for some added zing. Awesome. Zilla loves it too, but minus the red pepper. Fab Hub, who is not generally a soup fan, said it was good and would eat it. He can’t, though, because I’m about to finish the last serving.

And after that happens, it’s time for another soup…trying to decide between zucchini soup and kohlrabi carrot soup. Check next time for the results!