Print the recipe card!  curried pumpkin bisque

This recipe, adjusted to use food storage, comes from one of my favorite cookbooks ever.  In fact, if I could only keep a handful of published cookbooks to cook from this would be one of them.  The book is called “Soup Makes the Meal” by Ken Haedrich.  Rarely have I found a cookbook in which every recipe is good but so far, in four years of using it, this one hasn’t let me down.  As far as food storage recipes go, soups are the easiest of meals to convert.  This book would be a good one to check out if you’re looking for further options.

serves 6

Prep time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1/2 cup freeze dried onion

1/4 cup freeze dried celery

1/2 cup freeze dried green pepper

1 bay leaf

1 TBS butter (*in this recipe I used some leftover Red Feather Brand canned butter)

1 scant TBS curry powder

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1 large can chicken broth

1 (11 oz.) can corn

1/2 tsp. salt

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin puree

1 (14.5 oz.) can crushed tomatoes (recipe uses 1/2 cup)

1/2 tsp. sage (powdered)

Instructions

Rehydrate the onions, celery and green pepper with 1 cup of the chicken broth.  In a pot over medium heat cook rehydrated vegetables with 1 TBS canned butter, curry powder, bay leaf and garlic powder for about one minute.  Add the remaining chicken broth, corn and 1/2 tsp. of salt; bring to a boil.  Stir in the pumpkin, crushed tomatoes and sage.  Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, adding more salt if necessary.  When ready to serve, stir well (the ingredients tend to settle) and serve with homemade croutons to top.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Notes:

• As a three month meal I’d also top this soup with some shredded sharp cheddar cheese as the book’s author suggests to do.  Freeze dried cheese, while it’s great to mix into things or to melt on top of a sandwich or a pizza, in my book it isn’t good enough to garnish a soup with.  Go ahead and call me a cheese snob 😉

• Making homemade croutons is easy!  Cut bread into cubes and toss with oil, salt and seasonings of choice.  Spread seasoned bread cubes onto a baking sheet and bake at 350 until golden brown ( 12 – 15 minutes).