Curried Tomato, Butternut Squash, and Sweet Potato Soup with Poached Eggs

It’s another awesome Food Matter’s Project Monday! This week’s recipe, Curried Tomato Soup with Hard-Boiled Eggs, was chosen by Joanne of Eats Well with Others. Visit her website for the original Mark Bittman recipe. While you’re over there, make sure to check out her stuff. I love this girl! She comes up with amazing dishes, she inspires me to run, and her nice comments give me the encouragement to keep on blogging because someone out there is reading my words.   

How is everyone recovering from St. Patty’s Weekend? Hope you all had fun parties or alone times. As for me… what’s a girl to do when her man is out partying with his guy friends? Well, thinking of some creative twists to the next Food Matters Project dish of course! Call me boring, but this is me… I like reading cookbooks, food blogs, thinking about food, hovering over pots and pans, stirring, tasting, taking down notes, peeking in the oven to see if my bread rose or if the cookies are done, smelling like garlic and curry or sporting flour dust on my running pants. You get the picture. Is anyone else as non-exciting as I am during the weekends? Please assure me that I am not alone.

Wait, I did do something fun for St. Patty’s Day… I baked Irish Soda Bread! Also, before my taxi driver shift, I met some girlfriends and had a big, fat cheesecake and a glass of wine. Just a glass.      

Now, let’s talk about this dish… So, instead of using fresh tomatoes, I opted for frozen tomatoes and a can of diced tomatoes. Last summer, my friend, Heidi, urged me to save the tomatoes in her garden from rotting. And me, being the good friend that I am, willingly obliged. I picked tons of beautiful orange and red grape tomatoes… they were so sweet and juicy… I froze some and kept saving them for something special. But as what usually happens when I freeze things, I forget about them until one day I decide to peek in my freezer and see what’s in the recycled yogurt containers. *Gasp!* Heidi’s tomatoes! Winter is over… must use them NOW!

Also, because the cauliflower was expensive, I decided not to buy any and used what I had on hand. A butternut squash dying to be cut up and a sweet potato with cute sprouts (not really cute). 

This dish was insanely delicious and super healthy! No guilt feelings after I polished off a huge bowl. All flavors melted together very well. The spices in the sauce did not overpower anything and the vegetable flavors still came through. Each bite has delicious chunks of sweet and earthy root vegetables. 

Curried Tomato, Butternut Squash, and Sweet Potato Soup with Poached Eggs

Adapted from The Food Matters Cookbook, by Mark Bittman

The few changes that I made were the following:

- Sweet potatoes and butternut squash instead of regular potatoes and cauliflower
- 2 tbsp olive oil instead of ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 2 ½ cups frozen grape tomatoes + 1, 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- Added ½ tsp garam masala
- Opted out of hard-boiled eggs and poached the eggs instead (this is a Mark Bittman suggestion)
  
Roasted Vegetables
1 tbsp olive oil
1 sweet potato
half of a medium butternut squash
½ tsp salt
pepper
 
Roast for 16 minutes at 425 degrees F. Stir halfway through the cooking time.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the garlic, ginger, onions, and jalapeno with curry, cumin, and sugar.

Throw in the roasted vegetables followed by the carrots. Give everything a good stir.

Pour in 2 and ½ cups of vegetable broth and 1 cup of coconut milk. Add 2 and ½ cups of frozen grape tomatoes, and a can of diced tomatoes. Bring to a boil for up to 15 minutes over medium heat.

For an extra boost of flavor, add ¼ teaspoon of salt and ½ teaspoon of garam masala. Turn the heat down to medium low and let simmer for another 12 minutes or so.

Move however much of the curry needed into a pan and let boil over medium heat. Crack eggs on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper. When the egg whites turn white, call it good. If you want your eggs more well done, wait a little longer until the yolk hardens.

Serve over basmati rice.

A very tasty, healthy, and filling meal!