The recipe: p312, "Spicy Sweet Potato, Butternut Squash & Chickpea Soup"
Feeling distinctly unmotivated following a weekend trip to Wales and still slogging through the murk of Brexit depression, I'm secretly quite relieved when random.org throws up a relatively simple soup from a book we last encountered way back in Week 3 instead of a three-stage seafood vol-au-vent or a meringue swan that's going to tie me to the kitchen worktop for hours and hours.
We're firmly into the dark months of the year as far as the structure of the book is concerned, and the recipes reflect this - the next double-page features "Bangers & Beans" and "Bangers, Mash & Savoy Cabbage", both of which sound like they might mark the point where soup and baby food intersect - but in the case of this week's random choice, which "belongs" to November 2nd, I'm anticipating something closer to a soup version of the weekday vegetable curries I bash out on a semi-regular basis. That'd do nicely even on a drizzly June evening.
The prep: The ingredient list is surprisingly long for a simple soup, though none of it is hard to track down. As well as the squash and the sweet potato, I'm short of sesame seeds, a lime and some fresh coriander, all of which are easily sourced locally. The recipe casually mentions that the cumin and coriander seeds need to be toasted and ground first, and the sesame seeds toasted but not ground (even though the soup is going to get thoroughly blended later on, but okay). Other than that, it's straight on to the business end of proceedings.
The making: An onion and some garlic are slowly cooked in oil for ten minutes, then the aforementioned seeds, some ginger, a deseeded, chopped green chilli, the zest of a lime and a teaspoon of honey are added and the whole thing is stirred for 30 seconds.
Next, the sweet potato and the butternut squash are stirred through, half of the juice of the lime is added, and a healthy portion of vegetable stock is poured in. The mixture is brought to the boil and simmered for ten minutes, then the chick peas are added and the mixture is given another ten minutes in the pan. The remaining lime juice is added "to taste" - your guess is as good as mine, to be honest, since I'm not in the habit of knowing how much lime I need in my life - then the soup is blended "until very smooth". Chopped coriander is sprinkled on top before serving, resulting in something looking uncannily like a bowl of soup:
The eating: Everything's been going well until now, so it's disappointing to report that the end product doesn't really deliver. Basically, the problem is in the spices and seasoning. I expected the interesting dark gloopiness of the cumin, coriander, sesame seeds, honey and co. to give the soup a really nice base flavour, but the sole green chilli is nowhere near enough to deliver the kick required to offset the inherent blandness of the squash and sweet potato. Easily resolved, of course - a healthy slug of Cholula does the trick second time round - but a bit of a let-down for a recipe that calls itself "spicy".
Texturally I certainly can't complain - it fits the bill as a hearty bread-dunker for a lazy weekday evening - and the taste does start to develop and assert itself as you work your way through the bowl, so maybe it's a slow-burner (albeit without the burn). Also, on a purely procedural front, I quite like the idea of using something like chick peas to thicken instead of the usual "just chuck a potato in there", even if they don't really add much to the dish.
You'll forgive me, though, for longing for the kind of "soup" in which my warm walnut tart at The Shed in Porthgain on Saturday night was swimming. Caramel, butterscotch and cream: basically a week's calorie allowance on a single plate. Mmmmmm.
Getting back to the topic at hand, anyway: this was absolutely okay, but there needs to be a whole lot more happening on the flavour front for it to justify its name and make a repeat appearance on a non-Random Kitchen day. Ho hum.
One-word verdict: Adequate.
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