African Peanut Soup

From AndreaS:

Here’s an easy recipe I made the other day. I thought it was really good J I’ve never been to Africa, but that’s what my friends call this soup, so I have no idea if it is “authentic” in any way, but it’s good! J

African Peanut Soup

8-10 Roma Tomatoes (chopped with liquid)

½ cup (uncooked) brown rice (cook separately)

1 large bell pepper (red peppers are the best, but green work great)

4 Cups vegetable (or Chicken) broth (I used 2 Maggi bullion cubes b/c I didn’t have any broth handy)

4-5 Medium/Large Onions

2 green onions chopped (optional)

2-4 Garlic cloves

Salt

Pepper

Garlic powder

Chili Powder (if you have it – if not, paprika works great)

(Add seasonings according to personal preference)

½ cup Peanut Butter (crunchy or creamy depending on preference – I use creamy)

Cook the Brown Rice in a separate pot or pressure cooker. While it’s cooking, put the tomatoes, bell pepper, garlic cloves and broth in a big pot on the stove. Once the tomatoes have cooked a while (15 min or so) add the salt, pepper, garlic powder & chili powder/paprika. I usually wait until this point to add the onions (I like them to have a little crunch. If you like them without crunch then add them when you add the tomatoes. Add the rice and the peanut butter. Heat and stir until the peanut butter is dissolved.

I think this is a really good and hearty soup. It’s even better and thicker the next day. I think it would be good with about a half a kg of shredded chicken too!

Pumpkin Pie Spice, and What to Do with Kaddu

It's kaddu season in South Asia! Kaddu is a wonderful substitute for pumpkin in lots of delicious fall recipes. Several have already started appearing on the blog, but here's some tips for cooking kaddu.

The subji wallas (vegetable salesmen) will have kaddu sitting out on their cart, usually already cut into. It's got green and yellow streaks on the outside and is pale orange on the inside, with normal looking pumpkin seeds. I usually buy a quarter of a kaddu at a time, which comes to around 1 kg.

There are lots of ways to cook the kaddu. Lots of people cover it in foil and bake it in the oven. AndreaS says: "For pumpkin I like to steam or boil. I just cut it off the rind and chunk it and steam or boil. I've tried to bake it - but for me it takes forever and it's always a little tougher in texture."

I figured, why not try something new? :) I bought some last week and cleaned out the seeds and cut it into smaller pieces that were about the size of my hand. My pressure cooker came with a little stand or grill plate for the bottom, so I put that in the bottom of the cooker and added water up to the rim of it. I put the kaddu pieces on the stand, and closed it, cooked them for about 10-15 minutes. They turned a beautiful dark orange color, and a knife slid the skins right off. I scooped the mushy kaddu into my mixee and pureed it, adding just enough water (or juice from the bottom of the pressure cooker for more flavor!) to make it smooth. Wow! It was beautiful! :) The 1 kg made about 2 cups of puree. 1 3/4 cup puree is equal to one can of pumpkin in the states, so I made some pumpkin bread, and with the remaining 1/4 c. I made a couple rounds of pumpkin spice lattes! I love fall!

Here's a great Make-Your-Own recipe from AndreaS. She says:

"I've made a lot of pumpkin things lately... Here's a recipe for Pumpkin Pie Spice if anyone is interested. The Ginger powder here is much stronger, so I usually use a little less. I haven't been able to find nutmeg powder (I've only recently looked though) - I usually just grind the nuts/seeds (are they nuts or seeds?) - same with the cloves ..."

Pumpkin Pie Spice
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (dalchini)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (jaiphal / javitri) powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (Laung / Lavang) powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (soonth) powder