Thanksgiving Recipes: Butternut Squash Soup with Adzuki Beans

This was taken with a DSLR and a new lens, courtesy the ManofFewWords!:-)

And the rest with my old Point and Shoot Nikon.

Hung Curd/ Yogurt Dip with sweet peppers, red chilli flakes and roasted cummin.

Dessert: Meyer Lemon Cheesecake with a Walnut crust

 Berries in a light Meyer Lemon-honey-sugar syrup.

Brunch: A simple pizza with a sprinkling of  Parmesan, yellow tomatoes, red onion slivers,  salt and black pepper.

Over the years, several versions of the traditional American  Thanksgiving dishes has become part of a new tradition; some years we have had a completely vegetarian menu. Our daily diet preference is vegetarian  and when we cook poultry or fish, it is always in a modest quantities. Every other dish, mashed potatoes, greens, green beans, bread, soup and chutneys would be spiced with flavours familiar from our cuisine too. Some dishes would just get an increase of the heat quotient. 

This dish mimics the traditional Kerala dish, the Erisseri where coconut is ground with cummin and also roasted to meld  with pumpkins, raw plantains, yams, beans and lentils. Heat comes from black pepper. Fried Shallots were added in some regions, or on some occasions. In the 'feast/sadya' version, the moisture was cooked away and coconut oil was used generously. In this soup, I have used coconut milk with ground cummin powder  and white pepper powder for the heat. This follows the route of another traditional dish, the Olan, Plantain and Adzuki Beans Soup; this is very similar but omits cummin and roasted coconut. This goes to Deb's Souper Sundays.

Serves One

Ingredients

1Cup of skinned  Butternut Squash

1/4 Cup cooked Adzuki beans

[soaked overnight and cooked]

1/2 Cup or more of coconut milk

1 pinch of cummin seeds, powdered

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1/4 tsp white pepper powder or according to taste

Salt

2 shallot, sliced and fried for garnish

Method

Cook the butternut squash and garlic  with just enough water and salt.

Once cooked, add the coconut milk and cummin powder

Season with white pepper powder

Cook for 4-5 minutes on simmer

Garnish with fried shallots, Serve.