Peanut Soup- without Peanuts?

Today is day 22 of being sick. I’m getting better, my doctor assures me… and at least I can clear both my ears again! I made lots of chicken soup earlier this week, but today I decided to try a family recipe/ cures-what-ails-you: West African Peanut Soup.

It’s also a great recipe for harvest time, when you are suddenly faced with WAY more leafy greens than you could possibly cope with. Or way more vegetables, period. As per my usual, I substituted most of the original ingredients, and took out some of the ingredients I couldn’t have. So feel free to add back in the onion, garlic, ginger, pepper, cumin and thyme… And play around with it as much as you like- amounts are HIGHLY variable! Here’s what I did, and it’s AWESOME. Plus it only uses one pot. YAY!

Pumpkin Seed Soup

1. In a food processor, blend about a cup of pumpkin seeds until they start to stick to the walls of the food processor. If you kept going, you could make this into pumpkin seed butter… but that’s not necessary for this recipe.
2. Pour a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil into a large soup pot. Add in the pumpkin seeds and stir.
3. Throw in a few cups of beans (these can be cooked, canned, or fresh beans), several beets (or tomatoes, like the original recipe), several cups of squash (I used butternut, cubed into smaller squares), two (or three) sweet potatoes (also cubed).
4. Cover with broth or water (about 4-8 cups), and boil/simmer until very soft- about 20-30 minutes.
5. Add a couple cups of corn, 6-10 cups of leafy greens (can be pre-cooked or raw- I used chard), and salt (plus other spices if you can) as desired. I also added a cup or so of cubed cooked chicken that I had on hand. Simmer until everything is hot, and the greens have wilted. Enjoy!

If you end up with more than you can eat at once, this is a soup that freezes and reheats well, and makes a lovely gift for friends who might be feeling under the weather as well!