Oleo: Soup and Stout.... mmmmm

Listening to Obama's last big rally... feeling hopeful.... feeling nervous... he's in Manassas- I grew up next that little strip mall city- who knew there were so many dems?

so last night was a special cookin night- soup and beer!

I made a yam, sweet potato, squash soup with Quinoa and Butter beans- it was so! good

It was my last night of beans (today I started soy- kicked it off with a vegan chocolate shake from Saturn Cafe).

For the soup (inspiration came from the Mothers Vegetarian Cookbook):

2 acorn squash

1 yam

1 sweet potato

4 cloves of garlic

6 cups of water

2 tablespoons of grated ginger

2 cups of cooked quinoa

3 cups of canned butter beans

1 handful of chopped parsley

1/2 cup of tahini

I peeled and cubed two acorn squash one yam and one sweet potato (this took forever!), peeled garlic and sliced the garlic into chunks. Sauteed the garlic in the bottom of the soup pot in a little olive oil, added the water and squash. I had lots of time between putting the kidlet to sleep and trying to help the husband make beer- so I cooked the squash and roots until they were very soft. Once all cooked I let it cool a bit. Then I threw into a blender the tahini and ginger, then added the squash/ root mush. I blended until almost smooth ( I like squash soups a little chunky). After blending in two batches I poured it all back into the pot, added cooked quinoa, parsley, and beans. Then warmed it all up- it was fantastic. Topped it off with a tiny bit of maple syrup and some pumpkin seeds I roasted from our jack-o-lantern.

For the beer- Tyler used a kit from the local home brew store. It was for a delicious smelling stout. He added some organic dark roast coffee grounds to add to the coffeeness that makes stout amazing. The 'tea' smelled like chocolate and coffee ( I am salivating just thinking about it, see picture of the inside of the tea bag below- I'm sure this has a technical name, but I have no idea what it is).