Give Me Bananas

Happy New Year pals! I hope 2010 is going to be a good one . I’m still in Japan (who would have guessed?) and so here’s the first guest post ever to be posted on Give Me Bananas (tatataaaaaaaa).

Caroline over at Caroline Dines was actually the very first blogger to comment on my blog which of course made me do some silly happy dances. Her blog is absolutely wonderful and I love the recipe that she created for her guest post. I hope you’ll enjoy it too! (You better get to start working on that soup right now – it might have healing powers if you’re feeling too hung over from last night. Who knows? )

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Good, Clean, Comfort Food

First, let me say I am honored to be writing a guest post for “Give Me Bananas”. I have enjoyed reading Karin’s blog ever since I discovered it a few months ago and am happy to contribute to such an inspirational site. We share a lot of the same food philosophy and both strive to keep that “healthy balance” we all look for.

Speaking of balance, after the holidays I usually feel that my intake of good, clean foods is somewhat lacking and my intake of sugary, comfort food is way too high. Therefore, the inspiration for today’s post came from my current state of sugar shock and the desire to get back to basics. Since I am currently home on vacation in the snowy mountains of Maine, what better treat than the ultimate winter food: soup and bread!

The soup began with two medium sized butternut squash. I staged this shot on our back porch to show the snow that we received last week. We’re all hoping for more soon!

After chopping and peeling, we set the chunks aside while the onions and oil browned in the pot.

I threw in a pinch or two of curry powder and some minced ginger root…

…then added the squash along with 2 cups of stock (we used turkey stock because that was simmering on the stove anyway) and 2 cups of water.

Once the soup was cooking we began the bread. This bread recipe is from a Scandinavian Baker named Beatrice Ojakangas who wrote the cookbook Great Whole Grain Breads. This book is chock full of delicious bread recipes, and while I can’t share the actual proportions and ingredients with you, I will say that using whole wheat flour and local honey really make this bread hearty tasting but also slightly sweet.

This particular bread is called Honey Wheat Casserole bread and its claim to fame is that it is “no knead”! We literally put all the ingredients in the Kitchen Aid mixer and mixed away until the dough formed.

After the mixing process we scraped out the dough and placed equal amounts in two casserole dishes (we doubled the recipe).

Since we wanted the bread to just about double in size, we placed the dishes near the fire (the warmest place in our house!) for about 45 minutes.

The loaves baked at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.

By the time they were done we were getting hungry for lunch and had a little appetizer of warm bread and butter. There is nothing better in my opinion

For lunch I made up a sandwich using left-over turkey meat, cranberry sauce and the fresh bread. I enjoyed a fresh salad on the side with a few avocado slices and some balsamic vinegar.

After eating our lunch we set to work putting the finishing touches on the soup. This meant getting out the immersion blender and adding some final touches to season it.

The final product came out thick and creamy; just the way I like my pureed soups. I was rather full from lunch so enjoyed just a taste or two. The best news is that we have bread and soup for the week ahead which is calling for more snow! If it’s cold or wet where you are you might want to give this hearty, healthy soup a try. Here’s what I used for ingredients:

Curried Squash Soup

• 2 medium butternut squash

• 1 onion

• 1 tablespoon of oil

• 2 tablespoons curry powder

• 1 tablespoon minced ginger root

• 2 cups of water

• 2 cups of stock (vegetable, chicken, turkey)

• 2 tablespoons of maple syrup

• 1 teaspoon thyme

• 1 teaspoon cardamom

• Salt and pepper to taste

This entry was posted on Friday, January 1st, 2010 at 9:01 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.