Butternut squash soup

This soup is thick, rich in taste, little sweet and filling without being heavy. A good meal, if you are looking for something light and filling. Butter nut true to it's name is a hard skinned vegetable, however, when it cooks, it gets creamy and soft as butter. You can compare it to pumpkin, although less sweeter.

Perp Time: 15 to 20 minutes

cook time: 20 to 30 mins.

Servings: 6 to 8 approx

Ingredients:

1. Butternut squash - about 3 cups, or 1 entire small squash roughly chopped.

2. Celery - 3 to 4 stalks

3. Potato - 2 medium

4. Carrot - 1/4 cup

5. Onion - 2 small or 1 medium

6. Garlic - 2 to 3 pods.

7. Salt - to taste

8. Ground black pepper - to taste

9. Water/veggie stalk - 4 to 5 cups, approx. please eyeball.

10. oil - 1 tbsp

11. Rosemary dry - 1/2 tsp

12. Basil dry - 1 tsp

 13. Parsley  dry- 2 tsp (use fresh herbs if on hand. you may need little more)

14. Thyme dry - a pinch (optional)

Method:

1.  Heat oil in a pot.

2.  Saute all the dry herbs for a few seconds, add potato and 1/2 tsp of salt and let it sweat.

3. Add onion and garlic to it and saute for few seconds, let the onion get transparent.

4. add carrots and celery, let them sweat it may take 3 minutes.

5. Add butternut squash at this point and let it sweat for a few minutes.

6. Add some salt and water/stalk and let it cook till potatoes and squash gets tender. it may take upto 30 minutes.

7. Blend the cooked soup untill smooth. 

8. Add ground black pepper to it and heat it for 5 more minutes.

Tips:

1. You may add 1/4 cup of half and half/cream/milk to the soup and stir it in when heating after blending.
2. You may add roasted red bell pepper finely chopped to the soup when heating after blending. 

Aash

Aash:

This is a highly nutritious Iranian soup. Filled with lentils, chick peas, blacked eyed peas and wholesome goodness of a bunch of different greens make this soup very delicious. Aash basically means soup in Persian, this is a heavily aromatic and heavy in the tummy soup. Have a bowl full of this and you will forget eating for the rest of the day :D.

Prep time: 30 minutes approx (including cleaning) 

Cook time: 1/2 hr to 2 hrs.

Servings: 8 to 10 approx.

Ingredients:

1. Black eyed peas - 1 16oz can

2. Chick peas - 1 can 16oz or half if you don't want too much.

3. Lentils - 1 16 oz can.

4. Big onion - 1 or 2 small medium onions.

5. Garlic - 4 to 5 pods

6. Parsley - 2 tsp (dry) you can use fresh herbs if available.

7. Chives/scallions - 4 tsp(dry) if using scallions about 1/4 cup.

8. Dill weed - 1/4 cup

9. Cilantro/coriander - 1/4 cup

10. Mint Leaves - 1/4 cup

11. Spinach - 2 cups or more if you like

12.Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

13. Ground black pepper - to taste

14. Salt - to taste

15. Oil - 2tbsp

16. water - enough to cook, please eye ball it. approx 6 to 7 cups.

17. Kashk*/Wine vinegar/sour cream - 1/4 cup

*Kashk is a yogurt based ingredient, used in Persian cooking. You will find it at middle eastern stores or where a lot of middle eastern people shop for groceries. Only substitute it if you absolutely cannot find kashk. It is the main ingredient which gives this soup an unforgettable taste. It is salty, so when you add salt to the dish, add less so it gets adjusted when you add kashk.  It is generally found as white dry balls or now in liquid form. Next best substitute to Kashk is sour cream.

Method:

1. Heat oil in a big pot.

2. Saute all the dry herbs first for a few seconds.

3. Add Garlic and saute for few seconds.

4. Add onions saute for a few seconds and add salt mix and close it till it gets slightly golden brown.

5. Now add Mint, dill, parsley, chives, scallions, turmeric and saute for a few minutes.

6. Add spinach and let it wilt slightly.

7. add all the beans from the can, add sufficient water and let it cook for atleast 20 minutes.

9. Now add cilantro and cook for 2 minutes.

10. Add kashk and black pepper and cook for a 3 to 5 minutes.Aash is ready to eat.

Tips:

1. You can soak all the peas and lentils overnight and cook them using the above method. However, it will easily take up to 2 hours for it to finish cooking. if you do not have enough time, use the can version. It cooks a lot faster.

2. If you hate garlic. Do not chop or grate them into your dish. Just crush them and add them to the dish and pull them out when the cooking is done. you will have the garlic flavour but no garlic. This trick can be used for all the dishes which uses garlic.
3. Canned beans contain salt in them, so be careful when you add salt to the soup.
4.It is always a good idea to cook in medium heat, if you are in a hurry, use high heat. Remember to stand near the stove if you cooking on high. for more flavour, simmer the stove for 5 minutes before you turn it off for soups.
5. Use a thick bottomed vessel for cooking all kinds of soup.

Goes well with Persian naan, if you can't find it, you can use pita bread.