It was rainy and beginning to get chilly last night, showing sure signs of Autumn. So, I decided it would be the perfect evening to try a recipe from Nava Atlas’ excellent Vegetarian Soups for All Seasons. From the “Autumn” section, I cooked up a very unique broccoli, apple, and peanut soup. I was only expecting it to take 35-40 minutes to prepare, but it ended up being a 1 1/2 hour experience (not including the trip to the grocery store). Fortunately, it was one of those nights that I was ready for a more time-intensive dish (and even the clean-up afterwards). The week started off kind of stressfully and cooking was the perfect activity to help me center and refocus.

Anyway, the dish… garlic and two large onions are sauteed until golden and then added to a vegetable broth with some chopped carrots and broccoli florets. Some curry is also thrown into the mix. After simmering for a short while, everything but the broth is pureed with low-fat peanut butter until smooth. This mixture is then added back to the broth and allowed to simmer a bit more. Some more carrots and broccoli are steamed separately and then added into the soup. It’s then ready to serve with optional chopped peanut garnish.

The end result was a nice, hot, hearty soup that would be perfect for a late-Autumn Sunday night dinner. Though I would have preferred it to be a little thicker, I made a few mistakes along the way that made the soup a bit thinner than I would have liked. All-in-all, a great dish well worth revisiting.