My grandparents always had a supply of Queensland Blue Squash from the home garden. We called them pumpkins, and they stored well in a cool, dark place in grandma's pantry. Sunday dinner was often one of our chickens baked and served with mashed potatoes, mashed pumpkin and homegrown beans. Leftover mashed pumpkin made a base for great soup combined with a soup broth made from the chicken leftovers gently boiled on the back of the kitchen wood stove for at least a day. My grandparents had no electricity.Ingredients
1 half cup of olive oil
2 tablespoons of butter
6-8 cups of mashed Queensland Blue Squash
2 cups of chopped onions
2 cups of chopped celery
1 quart of chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon ginger powder
2 cups of shredded cheese (My preference: medium cheddar)
2 teaspoons of Italian seasonings
Directions
In a saucepan place the olive oil and saute the chopped onions. Add the chicken broth, bring to a slow boil and add the rest of the ingredients. This makes for a thick soup. Add more chicken broth, not water, to thin the soup. The butter and cheese gave the soup a creamy taste. In the outback, at that time, we rarely had fresh cream so we used canned evaporated milk. Adding a half cup of canned evaporated milk would help make a creamy soup. Leave the soup on a very slow boil for an hour and stir well. The cheese was usually cheese that had dried and could not be used in sandwiches. The Italian seasoning was my idea. Grandma could just add a few tablespoons of the leftover, well spiced, chicken stuffing, to the chicken broth.
If you do not have Queensland Blue Squash, the sweetest squash of all, Butternut Squash would be an excellent replacement. Steam the squash until well cooked and use a potato masher. Some like to use a blender on the squash. I prefer the mashed texture. Garlic toast makes an excellent addition when the soup is served.
Suggestions Received:
1. Soup is not soup for some folks if there is no taste of meat. Before you add chopped onions to the olive oil, brown four slices of bacon chopped into 1/2 inch pieces.
2. I was surprised when four more family members ("rellies"in Australia) arrived that I expected. I quickly added another quart of chicken broth and 2 cups of dried potatoes and a little more salt and pepper. The additions blended in well with a slow boil and stirring for five minutes. The soup was a little thinner, but the taste was still great.
I remember my grandfather moving excess Blue Squash to friends and neighbors in his horse and sulky. He never had a car or a drivers license. When he picked me up at the train station he did so in the sulky a two wheeled vehicle.
