Day 6: Pumpkin Soup with Blood Orange Salad

I'm not sure if I'm jealous of the snow that blanketed my friends in the Southeast or thankful that I'm not dealing with it. We got to enjoy about an hour of beautiful, feathery snowflakes today (Sunday). I'm content. We built a fire and wore lounge clothes all day -- a pseudo snow day in my mind. To go along with our pretend snow day, I made another big pot of soup. I could probably eat soup all winter long if I could. My husband doesn't feel the same, but he definitely loves this one. I got this recipe from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram last February. They had readers submit their favorite soup recipes and this was one of a handful of recipes that was selected. Like most recipes, I've modified it a bit to suit our taste, but I must give credit to its originator.

Here's the link to the article http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/02/02/1940759/wrap-your-hands-around-a-bowl.html, written by my reporter friend, Stephanie Allmon.

Pumpkin Soup:

Submitted by Jan Washburn of Fort Worth

Jan Washburn says, "This soup is easy and fast. The coconut milk, curry and jalapeño lend wonderful flavor." You could easily omit the sausage to make it a healthful and tasty veggie soup.

Makes 4 large bowls or 8 side-dish servings

1 tablespoon cooking oil

3 mild Italian sausage links

1 cup sliced carrot (2 medium)

3/4 cup coarsely chopped green sweet pepper (1 large)

1/2 cup chopped onion (1 medium)

1 15-ounce can pumpkin

1 14-ounce can unsweetened light coconut milk

1 14-ounce can reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 tablespoons packed brown sugar

1 medium fresh jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon curry powder

2 tablespoons snipped parsley

1. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat and cook sausages 15 minutes, stirring often. Remove from pan. In drippings, cook carrot, sweet pepper and onion over medium heat about 5 minutes or until vegetables are almost tender. Remove from heat.

2. In a bowl, combine pumpkin, coconut milk and broth. Stir in brown sugar, jalapeño pepper, salt and curry powder.

3. Stir pumpkin mixture into cooked vegetable mixture. Place back on heat. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered, about 10 minutes or until heated through, stirring frequently.

4. Chop cooked sausages. Stir in sausages or serve on top of soup. Stir in parsley before serving.

Heather note: (I used Central Market's chicken hot italian sausages from the market case -- so good!! It makes it a little healthier. If you can't find the chicken sausage in your grocery store, regular italian sausage tastes great too. Also, I add the juice of one fresh lemon to the pot of soup. It brightens the flavor tremendously and adds a great spark of flavor. Also, in my book this makes about 3 to 4 servings of soup. We usually eat it as a meal, and we're lucky to get four servings out of this recipe).

Nutritional analysis per serving, based on 4: 244 calories, 15 grams fat, 25 grams carbohydrates, 10 grams protein, 14 milligrams cholesterol, 602 milligrams sodium, 5 grams dietary fiber, 49 percent of calories from fat.

Blood Orange Salad (my own)

1 bag of mixed greens

2 blood oranges, peeled and sectioned

1/4 cup almonds, toasted

4 slices cooked bacon, crumbled

Dressing:

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1/2 tsp cumin

salt and pepper to taste

whisk and drizzle on top of salad