Happy Trails For Us: My Reluctant Blog

Jan (jgk) picked this recipe for us this week. She says she found it in the December 2001 issue of Gourmet and has been making it ever since. Originally this curried soup was served cold, but Jan says she served it hot in the winter chill and found it even better that way.

This soup uses some interesting ingredients, as you will see, and I have to say that I was not sure if potato, banana and curry was going to tickle my palate. Bravely, I carried on and you know, it went way beyond half bad, this was really very good.

Ingredients for One-Of-Each-Kind-Soup

1 large boiling potatoe, peeled and coarsely chopped (I used russet, Jan uses Yukon Gold)
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
1 celery heart (inner pale stalks with leaves), coarsely chopped (1/2 cup)
1 large apple (preferably Granny Smith), peeled and coarsely chopped
1 firm-ripe banana, coarsely chopped
1 pint chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream (Jan uses whole milk, and so did I)
1 Tblsp unsalted butter
1 rounded teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh chives (I used scallion tops due to market chive scarcity)

Preparation:

Simmer vegetables and fruits in broth in a 3-quart heavy saucepan, covered, until very tender, about 12 minutes. Stir in cream, butter, curry powder, and salt, and heat just until hot (do not boil),

Puree soup in a blender until smooth (use caution when blending hot liquids). Thin soup with water if desired and serve sprinkled with chives. I also topped my soup with some roasted cashews that I found in the cupboard.

Cooks' notes:
- Soup can be made 2 days ahead and chilled, covered.

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So we start by gathering all the ingredients:

The fruits and veggies get chopped and place in the pot:

After it was all simmered, I took out the immersion blender and ended up with a pot of soup:

This was really delicious for lunch yesterday, with a toasted English muffin. My neighbors have a container (and we got some cheesecake in return), and there is still some to take to work tomorrow for lunch. Thanks, Jan, for broadening my culinary horizons.