Finally, a soup
Roasted sweet potato squash soup, very orange, sexy, and seasonal, served with bread. Local election fever!!
I have been trying to understand the pros and cons of ranked choice voting in local elections. It’s on the ballot in suburban Minnesota, which made me realize I did not get how it works. Oh, but I’ve been researching. Most lawns that have a vote yes or vote no on ranked choice sign provide few other indications about their political affiliations. I have seen maybe two that also had signs for local GOP candidates, which sort of made sense because voting no on ranked choice has a slight gerrymandering, voter ID air about it. Some voting is fine — the people can have a little voting.
I found a Rock the Vote infographic about how it works and it was actually helpful to visualize the math. We have been unfair to the infographic. Yes, they are for stupid people, but after all I am stupid people. The infographic is on a section of the website called, “Democracy Explainers.” Dated NGOs explain things to me.
For most ranked choice voting, you are presented with three candidates. Rank them 1 to 3. The candidate with the fewest votes gets axed — the people who ranked that embarrassing loser first get their second choice votes, for 1 or 2, added to those candidates’ vote piles. The candidate with the most votes after that wins. Welcome to the sexy world of civil service.
It’s like a nice way to vote for which one of my friends makes the best party dip. It could also be a good way to vote for three candidates with varied policy objectives that could impact me and the issues I care about in multitudinous ways, a matrix of bad and good possible outcomes that I have to weigh against my own vague notion of the number one civilization. In a time of feverish tribalism, is that too plucky? I saw a billboard for a guy running for the state house and the slogan was something like, “Protecting our way of life.” Man, I grew up in California. I do not care. He’s running to be a state congressman in the upper Midwest. He should be telling me about summer highway construction, not blood and soil. But that’s how it goes.
I think I will vote yes on ranked choice voting. Who doesn’t like a do-over. Transition~
I had some soupy odds and ends in the kitchen and there is finally a crispy static cling about. I made a puréed starchy roasted vegetable soup, served with crispy chickpeas and half a sourdough boule leftover from the end of season farmer’s market. My daughter mostly ate the bread and the butter, but now she is very into the concept of soup.
Roasted squash & sweet potato soup with crispy chickpeas and nutmeg sour cream
For the soup
4 small or 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
One butternut squash, peeled and cubed
One head of garlic
2 yellow onions, cut into thick wedges
1-2 tsp Italian seasoning*
3 tbsp olive oil
3 cups vegetable broth
Juice of one lemon
For the toppings
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 cup sour cream
Pinch of nutmeg
Method
Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare the sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and onions. Toss with two tablespoons olive oil, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper. Arrange on two baking sheets, ensuring there is no overlap.
Cut the top off the garlic head. Place in a small sheet of foil and coat with one tablespoon olive oil. Wrap and seal foil around it. Place the foil-wrapped garlic head in a corner of one of the baking sheet.
When the oven comes to temperature, roast the vegetables for 30 to 40 minutes**, shaking the vegetables up and rotating the pans once at halfway.
Add roasted vegetables, 3 cups vegetable broth, juice of one lemon, and squeezed garlic head into a heat-safe blender or large pot with immersion blender. Blend until smooth. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
For the chickpeas, drain and rinse, then leave to dry on some paper towels for 15 minutes, patting and rolling gently every so often to remove some of the outer husks. Toss with olive oil, smoked paprika, generous couple pinches of salt, and a few grinds of pepper. Bake at 400F for 22 to 25 minutes.
Whisk sour cream with pinch of nutmeg.
Ladle soup into bowls, dollop with sour cream, and sprinkle with chickpeas. Eat with bread.
Notes
* Italian seasoning is what I had and what was easy, but you can use whatever dried herb combination you prefer. Fresh herbs would probably be better, but I don’t have them on hand very often in the fall and winter.
** Maybe you like more of a char or less, maybe you have a convection oven, maybe your kitchen is really hot. The vegetables need to be easily pierced by a fork to be pureéable — beyond that, it’s your party.