Soup for a Gypsy

I tend to think of myself as a bit of a gypsy, roaming from place to geographic place, city to city, job to job, mindscape to mindscape, embracing it all, absorbing the experience, then moving on with all of the necessities of life and a suitcase of ripe and vivid memories.

This Gypsy Soup is a take on Mollie Katzen's from her Moosewood Cookbook. I used squash (a butternut that I cooked ahead of time instead of the called for yams) but otherwise I stuck fairly close to the ingredients: cooking an onion and celery with some garlic and ginger in oil. Adding spices like cumin seed, cinnamon, turmeric, cayenne, and cardamom into the blend (although you can definitely play around with the spice mixture depending on your tastes). Then I added a couple of cups of water, the squash which was mostly cooked and cut into cubes, some julienned zucchini and a can of plum tomatoes. As it neared readiness, I added a can of chick peas. After serving into large clay bowls, I squeezed half a lemon into the soup, chopped a mixture of parsley and cilantro and stirred that in, and cut up an avocado. Then I took a spoonful of hot mango chutney and put a big dollop on top of everything.

This soup/stew is gypsy-like in that it is Spanish in flavour and spice and that it works with the scenery i.e. any green or orange vegetable suits the rhythm.

Try a bottle of 120 Chardonnay 1995 from the Santa Rita winery in Chile which retails for $9.60 at the LCBO.

Comments

[Mats Flemstrom]

This sounds (and looks) pretty swell. Since you said that you are a "gypsy"
I had a look at your "About" photo. Is this still current? Do you have a better "gypsy" shot to update it with??