Squash and Squash Blossom Soup
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 large white onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large yellow tomato, diced (yellow is preferable, but red is okay)
splash of beer, optional
1/2 chipotle pepper en adobo, or more as you like
a few threads of saffron, optional
3 - 4 cup vegetable broth
2 small zucchinis (green, yellow, or one of each), cut into small pieces
6-10 squash blossoms, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup roasted corn kernels (frozen or canned is fine)
cumin, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
for garnish: lime wedges and chopped cilantro
This is a beautiful orange-colored soup that I came up with to use zucchini and their flowers. And this is traditional Mexican food-- it doesn't taste like what you get at the Tex-Mex place, but this is it! Delicious!
Saute the onion and garlic in a large heavy bottomed soup pot. When nicely brown, add the chopped yellow tomato and saute until most of the moisture is gone. Add a splash of vegan beer (hopefully Mexican, but whatever) and reduce. If you're not using beer, use a splash of your broth instead.
Add the rest of the ingredients up to corn, and simmer about five minutes. I would start with 3 cup of broth and go from there, based on how liquidy you want the soup. When zucchini is crisp-tender, remove from heat and season with salt, pepper, and cumin.
Serve with a liberal amount of chopped cilantro and a nice cool lime wedge.
SO HOW'D IT GO?
This soup is just outrageously good! I omitted the pepper because I wanted something milder, and I couldn't get my hands on squash blossoms, unfortunately, but it turned out just fantastic! It was really easy and cheap to make, too. We paired it with a pinot grigio and it was very nice.