Sunday, March 18, 2012

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 OthersVisit her website for the original Mark Bittman recipe. While you’re over there, make sure to check out her stuffI 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!        

17 comments:

  1. I think the sub of the sweet potatoes sounds delicious- the whole dish looks amazing (and I love basmati rice!)

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  2. I am convinced that these recipes can be adapted in pretty much every way possible! Nice work!

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  3. Aww thanks so much for your sweet words! And uhhh yeah, that's pretty much how I spent my St. Paddy's day also. And my running pants are ALWAYS covered in flour. Always.

    I almost always add sweet potatoes and/or bnut squash to curry so I love your adaptations! Majorly yum.

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  4. Hi Margarita, I love your subs. This sounds really good and I (like you) can think of nothing more fun than hanging out cooking in the kitchen.

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  5. I poached the eggs also but left them in too long so had hard boiled eggs without the shell. Still good.

    You made some good changes to this recipe. I am a sweet potato fan which means I should make it with the sweet potatoes, as well.

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  6. I'm sure it was delicious with the sweet potatoes. I used the regular potatoes because I wanted to try the recipe as it was written. Next time - sweet potatoes!

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  7. I think about food 24/7 too, you're not alone :).

    Love the poached eggs on this!

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  8. I love butternut squash and what a great idea to include it in this dish!

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  9. Thanks! yours looks so good over rice with the poached egg. I want to try that but the BF does not like runny eggs...

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  10. I think it's awesome that you had those frozen tomatoes - perfect! The rice looks really good under that yummy sauce :)

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  11. And you do it again! This looks delicious! I need to buy some butternut squash now!

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  12. I'm definitely like you on the weekends....I will happily stay home and cook/bake/peruse recipes/blogs/etc. rather than go out...haha! I almost used butternut squash in my dish too. After seeing yours, my mouth is watering!

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  13. I work out so I can eat too! I like your version of this recipe. Happy cooking!

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  14. That's how I spent most of my weekends too! what's better than feeding the people you love (and them telling you the food is good hehe). I also love this dish, love poached eggs and sweet potatoes, must try soon :)

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  15. This is my kinda curry -- love that you added garam masala and that poached egg in the curry technique, is awesome!!

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  16. OMG, This looks wonderful! Cannot wait to try this recipe.

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  17. I would love to eat this for dinner! Haven't had eggs with a curried component but I'm intrigued! I love that third picture of everything bubbling together.

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Let me know what your thoughts are... Your comments always make my day!