Sometimes you need a little something different. I love pumpkin soup as much as the next gal, but coming out the other side of the holiday season, I start to experience pumpkin fatigue. This recipe is a revelation when you’re sick of all things pumpkin spiced.

The soup starts simple enough, with puréed pumpkin (we used the canned stuff, for ease and for time management). Add some sautéed garlic, onion and even fresh sage. From there, things get a little more unusual. Add curry powder, cashew butter, and a good helping of fresh grated ginger. Purée it all and be sure to blend well! Read the full recipe below.

The cashew butter adds protein and texture as well as a fullness of flavor, leaving the end result incredibly satisfying. My hesitation with soup is always that it won’t be filling enough, and I often go for stews or chilis instead. This is the best of both worlds because it’s filling but not heavily weighed down by cream and butter.

However, the real star is the fresh ginger. One tip: Don’t be afraid to add a lot of ginger if you’re planning to serve your soup right away. Hold back a little – maybe even cut the ginger in half – if you’re planning to make your soup ahead of time and serve the next day. The longer this sits, the more the flavors meld together and that ginger becomes stronger and stronger.

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 10-15 minutes
Servings: 6 – 8

4 cups puréed pumpkin
4 – 6 cups chicken broth
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp yellow curry powder
1 tsp ground mustard
10 – 12 fresh sage leaves, chopped
1 – 2 tsp fresh grated ginger
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt, or adjust to taste
1 cup raw cashews
1 cup milk

Directions:

1. In a large pot or dutch oven, sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil for 2 – 5 minutes.
2. In a food processor or blender, blend the cashews and milk together until smooth and creamy. Add milk to bring to desired thickness. Mixture should still be pourable, but not completely liquid.
3. Add cashew butter and all spices except the fresh ginger to the pot and reduce heat while stirring.
4. Add chicken broth, pumpkin, and fresh ginger and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
5. Reduce heat and simmer 5 – 10 minutes.
6. Purée soup in a blender and adjust spices to taste before serving.

Part of being comfortable in the kitchen is having a “wheelhouse,” that is a range of recipes in your pocket you’re ready to make at any time. Once you have a handful of recipes you can make, you can expand from there and suddenly you can make anything.

So how do you get started with a handful of recipes to make for dinner? For me, it started with things my mom made, dishes that I was used to – fajitas, Italian food, steak sandwiches, stuffed chicken breast, the list goes on. Don’t have a guide? No problem – here’s my advice to you:

Get the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook.

Corelyn mentioned it in her post on gifts for food lovers, and I can’t stress it enough because it teaches you the basics. When I was in college, I made the lemon pepper chicken probably once a week (Sierra remembers) and confession: I still make it to this day, because it’s quick, I know it off the top of my head, and it’s versatile, so I can add whatever fresh herbs I have.

Here are a few other tips for building your wheelhouse:

1. Read labels. Curiosity is key when you’re making a meal. Tonight, making a stir fry I’ve made a million times, I looked at the label of my favorite Asian-inspired sauce and simply replicated that with the basic ingredients, without having to worry about all those preservatives and additions. So try a handful of store-bought sauces, figure out which ones you like the best, and read the labels to recreate them at home.

2. Be realistic. If you want to cook dinner, work out, watch the latest episode of Parenthood, finish the book club book, catch up on the blogs you read, and do laundry in one night you might be…overreaching. When Jeff and I have a busy night, I pull out a recipe that’s simpler, such as chicken quesadillas with steamed broccoli, that can be put together in 20 minutes before we head to the laundromat. If you only will have 30 minutes to make a meal, don’t attempt to make ravioli from scratch or insist you let the chili simmer for at least an hour. Start small: making chicken quesadillas with fresh chicken is a start to also shredding your own cheese, making enchiladas, making your own enchilada sauce…making chicken quesadillas with fresh chicken is better than making chicken quesadillas with precooked chicken or heating up a frozen meal.

3. Invite people over. Jeff won’t eat soup. I don’t like cilantro. Corelyn and Mary hate olives. It’s hard to please everyone, you guys. So if you want to try something out – a lasagna or a stew or simply a dish you know your partner or roomies won’t try – invite people over who you know will love it. Not only will you get brownie points with your friends, you’ll also be able to cook for a crowd! And, you can always take leftovers for lunches and in some cases, freeze things for later.

4. Relax. Cooking should be fun, and when it’s not, it’s best to take a deep breath and remember that you’re doing good, here. You’re feeding yourself something better. So take a deep breath, and relax. And, if you screw up and have to eat a frozen pizza one night, that’s OK. I have burnt rice, over-salted soup (well that was Becca but who’s keep track?),  and dropped entire plates on the floor before. It’s part of the experience!

What are your tips for experimenting in the kitchen and adding to your wheelhouse?

Jeff and I (read: I) decided to do a cleanse in January, which includes no white flour and no processed foods. That means no pasta and no white rice. After brainstorming a few meals that I realized we couldn’t have (quesadillas? Nope…no tortillas!) I realized we could have potatoes, delicious green beans, and lemony chicken.

So I whipped up lemon chicken for Jeff and I (and Corelyn and Mary, who also happened to be over!) I used the Barefoot Contessa’s recipe, because my mom has made it before and I knew it’d be a hit. (I was right.)

Basically, just take olive oil, saute a TON of garlic in it, remove from heat, and add some white wine, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Then, pour that into a baking dish, put your chicken on top, add more s/p, lemon slices, and a drizzle of olive oil, and stick it in the oven for about 30 minutes at 400. You’ll have juicy, delicious chicken that is quite lemony, indeed!

For the potatoes, we use olive oil, s/p, and maybe cumin, and simply steam the green beans for a quick and easy weeknight dinner. What is your go-to chicken breast recipe?

Today starts the beginning of Ms. Mary Costa writing for us at GMS. We’re excited to have her as a more regular part of our team. Mary took our header shots, our beach kitchen shots, everyone’s head shots on the site, and will be taking more photos of us this year, too. We hope you enjoy her adventures in everything sweet and caffeinated!

Hello! I’m ridiculously excited to be the newest member of the GMS team. After years of working alongside Garlic, My Soul with photography projects, I couldn’t hold out any longer and asked Jennie and Corelyn if I could join in their fun. I’m going to be honest with you here – aside from baking, I’m really not much of a cook. This is, after all, a cooking blog…so I’m a bit embarrassed to put that in writing!

That said, I love to eat. Sweet & Caffeinated is a marriage of my favorite things – coffee, dessert, and breakfast. I’m going to feature a different establishment every month and show what it’s like to be a caffeine-addicted foodie without being a chef.

To start out, I’m bringing you to LAMILL Coffee in Silver Lake. This place is renowned for its impeccably roasted coffee and high-end ingredients. It’s tucked away on Silver Lake Blvd, making you forget you’re in one of the biggest cities in the country.

Loving this classical-meets-modern look:

I cozied up with a book and this adorable vanilla latte (one of my favorite standbys). It had a nice balanced taste and wasn’t super sweet. Extra points, of course, for the foam heart. How do they do that?
While the latte was tasty, the real show-stopper for me was the homemade granola. It was full of nuts, dried fruit, and tasted of fresh cinnamon. Definitely one of the best granolas I’ve ever had!  I devoured the whole bowl.

It was a perfect, peaceful beginning to a Sunday morning.

How did you start your Sunday?

We’ve found ourselves at the end of a short week, friends! If you’re like me, you’re gearing up for a healthy round of kale and carrots as you detox from a wild and crazy (and exercise-light) holiday, but you’ve just gotten home from traveling and have only pasta, mac and cheese, and some questionable jarred sauces in your pantry. As you stock back up, here are some helpful tips on how to keep your pantry full! First, we love this helpful chart:

Green Plate Rule’s tips for a healthy stocked pantry give us great ideas on what to store, and we also love her pantry page for a rundown of what she keeps on hand.

We also love The Gracious Pantry’s list of what to have lying around, and her suggestion for clean eating: pick on thing in your pantry to replace each week. This is especially true if you’re making a lifestyle change (see keeping your resolutions) because you’ll want them to be changes that last!

Finally, this checklist from Real Simple is super helpful, and should help you to build your very own for your needs!

What do you keep in your pantry? Is any of it getting tossed for a 2013 clean out/resolution?