Now, That's a spicy meatball!
I had a list of things that I was running low on, so I killed two birds with one stone. That's right, I went on a grocery shopping study break. The things on my list were simple: yogurt, veg, fruit, fake lunch meat...you know, stuff. I was only intending to get lunch box fruits and veg. That is, until I saw the wide array of just-now-in-season squash.
Oh, squash, how I love thee.
I did what any squash-loving human would do. I remembered that my parents, on the recent whirlwind visit (that's right, they were here and you missed them. Now they are not here, and I miss them.) had brought me a stack of cookbooks including the weekday-vegetarian's best friend: 5 a Day cookbook. (Even if you are an everyday meat eater, I highly recommend checking out this cookbook. It is incredible and has a number of tasty,meaty recipes like Pork tenderloin in orange-basil sauce and catfish with tropical salsa. Yum.) And, instead of making note of the lovely and delicious squash that is now in season, I decided to wing it and buy what I thought went into the recipe for their "South of the Border Squash Soup". I bought vegetable broth, one large and lovely butternut squash (I had to go back out for tomato puree and a carrot). I was sure that the recipe also included garlic and onions and I had both of those at home. And, peppers. The recipe called for jalapenos, but I was in the grocery store milling around the produce and therefore was not looking at the recipe. I went for the lushest-looking local peppers I could find. I bought three of them. The sign said they were Hungarian hot peppers. Well, that's not quite right. It said they were Hungarian HOT peppers.
I used all three of them in the soup. My lips are still red from last night's feasting. To had injury to injury, I thought this lovely soup needed to be served with chicken nuggets. I selected Quorn's Southwestern Chik'n wings which have a lovely chipotle and lime coating. Dipped in the soup they added fire to the FIRE. It was awesome, in that what-kind-of-an-idiot-would-intentionally-set-themselves-on-fire sort of way. Although, I did end up dropping a dollop of sour cream on the top, which mellowed it out a little.
In case you needed more incentive to check out the cookbook, this lovely soup (is not as spicy when made correctly, but still packs a punch) has something like 126 calories a serving (it makes 8 of those) and provides you with two servings of vegetables and 5 grams of fiber. How awesome is that?
