Harvest Moon Soup

I’m not nearly organized enough, nor do specific days matter enough to me to make the effort, but for some reason I’m still fascinated by the meals that are targeted for days in the goddess tradition. This is partially what drew me to “Recipes from a Vegetarian Goddess” on that long ago day when I found myself bemused to be purchasing my first cookbook.

This weekend I made the Harvest Moon Soup. The Harvest Moon came and went 3 weeks ago, of course, but that didn’t stop me from wanting to try the recipe. Especially because it would use up the other half of the orange cauliflower from last week!

It is a soup that requires a long simmer time – over an hour, all together. Sometimes this makes it too time-costly to make, when you need to get something on the table sooner than later. Sometimes though, it works well to sautee a few things, throw it all in a pot, and ignore it for an hour while you do other things.

It is also a pureed soup. What is it about pureeing that is such magic? The creaminess tends to be delightful, of course, but something else happens to the flavors after blending. Maybe someone has written an article about it. Or will! It won’t be me writing any such article, but I’d love to read what other have to say about it.

But back to the soup. It smelled delicious cooking. And it was a delightful autumn yellow color after it was pureed. But when I finally tasted it, it was quite bland. Maybe it is supposed to be bland, since the main ingredients are potatoes and cauliflower! Maybe it is my taste buds taking a quick vacation. Maybe there is something to be done for it that would make things pop. It was definitely better after the addition of the coconut milk.

The blandness isn’t something that would stop me from making it again, though I’d definitely end up playing with it, and that generally has near disastrous results! But on a food-as-fuel day, or on a day when I’m in the mood for something bland, it is soothing both because of how creamy it is as well as how filling it is. It might be something that grows on me. I have a feeling that mostly it is just too subtle for my under-performing taste buds. Or maybe this is one of those dishes that works best with accompanying dishes. The recommendation is to serve with muffins and a salad. I will try it again with toast and see what I think. Or maybe I’ll make some corn muffins.