Sweet Potato – Summer Squash Soup

We harvested sweet potatoes last week. They were the only crop that made it through our hot, dry summer this year. The harvest seems to have been hindered by this year’s weather but even so what a gift it is to have a few boxes curing in the root cellar!

And, if you’ve been following my squash soup dilemma, you may be interested to know that this soup was actually well received even by that tough critic of ours.

We are a long way from growing all of our own food; let’s just get that out there. The Lord has graciously granted a general increase in food production over the seven years we’ve been doing this, but He has also mercifully blessed us with a family twice the size that we started with. It is all a gift; they are all a gift, but the reality is our family consumes a ton of food.

I’ve done the rough estimate of weekly foods – ten pounds of potatoes, twenty gallons of milk, ten pounds of beans, six pounds of onions and on and on. And the numbers go up with each passing year.

So there is a general mix of store-bought and homegrown and, as was the case this summer, we painfully purchased a great deal of produce because eventually we were growing none. But even then, eggs and milk and meat were there and every bit really does make a difference. So rarely are we eating all homegrown food but every time it is such a blessing.

And then, every once in a while, it just kind of works out that we do eat mostly homegrown. This spring it was a plethora of homegrown chicken and potatoes; for awhile now we have been eating from the steer we froze and canned. And then, the other night, we sat down and I realized everything in that pot of soup was homegrown – the broth, the vegetables, the herbs, the cream – all of it.

Alternating these idyllic meals with our regular rotation of rice and beans seems to work well as we continue to work towards growing more of our own food.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, Elijah actually really liked this soup… so guess what I’m making again this week?

Sweet Potato-Summer Squash Soup

• 6 cups homemade chicken broth
• 4 large sweet potatoes, cubed
• 3 large summer squash, roughly chopped
• 1 jalapeno (leave in seeds for a spicy soup; take them out for light spice)
• 4 garlic cloves
• 3 sage leaves
• 8 small basil leaves
• 1 sprig parsley
• 1 cup cream
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Combine broth, sweet potatoes, squash, jalapeno, and garlic in a Dutch oven. Place over high heat and bring everything to a boil. Turn it down and allow to simmer, covered, for 20-30 minutes or until all vegetables are soft. Remove from heat and allow to cool as needed for blending.

Blend the vegetables and broth together using an immersion blender or a regular blender. Stir in cream and herbs and blend until everything is smooth. Taste and add salt and pepper as desired.

Serve with additional raw cream and herbs as desired.