In the latest installment of “follow the squash”, I took the overly sweet gratin I made Tuesday night and turned it into a pretty awesome chowder tonight. There won’t be a recipe for this since it goes from some roasted squash we weren’t too fond of to fantastic squash & cashew sauce to a squash & potato gratin we thought we too sweet.
I sauteed some cumin seeds in a little canola oil before adding a medium onion, diced, and 4 cloves of garlic, minced roughly. Once the onions started to brown I added 2 cups of water and a quart of rice milk. Into this I put the leftover gratin and the kernels off of 4 small ears of fresh corn. Brought this up to heat and simmered for a little while until the gratin really started to break down. Then it was time for the immersion blender!
The pureed soup went back on low heat and I added in 3 cups of cooked black beans and the kernels off of two more ears of fresh corn. Into the soup went some dried marjoram and oregano, garlic pepper, powdered cumin, sweet paprika, sweet smoked paprika, chili powder, a pinch of cinnamon, about 1/3 cup of nutritional yeast, and a little salt. Simmered for a while to let the flavors come together.
It was really pretty tasty! I think I’d love to add a swirl of cashew creme and some chopped cilantro. Maybe even some diced avocado and toasted corn tortilla strips too. The cumin and dried chilies really mellowed out the sweetness of the squash. The corn did add more sweetness, but it had such a brighter note than the squash that it didn’t make it too sweet. I was glad I reserved two ears of corn in order to have some whole kernels in there. In the future I think I might add all the corn whole rather than blend 2/3 of it.