Saturday, March 3, 2012

these Saturday mornings are the best

 I woke up to blue skies, and went down to the market. It's the best part of living where we do: the weekly Saturday morning organic market is literally outside the door. I got some fresh eggs, bread from the baker, onions, and spinach. And I got some nice honey and homemade jam as a treat. :)

When I got home, I roasted butternut squash, sunchokes, onions and garlic, pureed them all (I love my immersion blender so so much), and now they are simmering on the stove for some afternoon soup. Yum. I am excited for spring...but making the most of the wintery veggies we have.

Unfortunately the market is in the shadow of the buildings to the east, so it's hard to show how beautiful this day is looking. Spring flowers are starting to come to the florists, and people are getting out more. I love living in Berlin!




Recipe: Sunchoke-Squash Soup
one large onion
one head of garlic (yes...)
smallish butternut squash
2 lbs sunchokes 
1/2 cup cream
1 cup stock/water
juice of half lemon
salt/pepper

1. Prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Cut 1/2 inch off head of garlic. Cut squash in half lengthwise, scoop seeds out. Wash sunchokes and cut into 1/2 inch pieces. (many American recipes say to skip the peeling part but wash well. they are so weird and knobby-shaped it definitely makes things easier, but you end up with small, potato-like skins in your soup. pros/cons...I left the skins on). Toss everything with a little olive oil, and ROAST all this stuff in the oven 45 mins (squash skin-side up, garlic open-end exposed).
2. When soft, throw it into a pot, thin with a little water or stock, and puree. Stir in cream at end and season with salt/pepper. The roasted garlic is amazing, and the lemon juice really adds something, too. I didn't get quite the consistency I wanted. If I did it again, I would maybe saute the sunchokes with the onion until soft, but roast the squash and garlic, and then add everything together and puree. The sunchokes were still a bit hard (you can see the not-so-smooth texture in the picture), but still delicious.

3 comments:

  1. Sehr schoen!!!!!!!! So schoen als die Tranen in meinen Augen sind!!
    mit liebe, ihre Tante Marguerite

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  2. I'll add a picture for you :) Also known as "jerusalem artichoke". Knobby little things.

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