I made some yummy soup today. This is the second time and I love it! The only thing that could make it better is Jasmine rice. One of the down falls of shopping small town Serbia.
I am one of those people who uses recipes as a guide line. As an expat, that sort of fluidity is an asset as not all ingredients are at my reach in this town or country!
I found the recipe on Pinterest here, my go to for recipes nowadays.
First, I unthawed the 2+ cups of pumpkin I had gotten from Deda’s garden last fall. The recipe called for a cup and a half. For the rest of the ingredients I upped the amount called for.
The pumpkin or tikva as it is called in Serbian was left over from last falls garden harvest here in Knjazevac. The first half was used to make this soup the first time and a nice pumpkin bread. Yum! Fresh pumpkin is great for cooking and freezing later. I prefer freshly thawed to freshly cooked. It is smoother less fibrous and needs less blending.
The recipe on pinterest calls for 2 minced cloves of garlic minced. I used four. I like garlic a lot.
It also calls for 1 to 2 teaspoons of grated ginger. I used about two thumbs of fresh ginger/dzumbir and diced before sauteing.
I don’t have sirachi or cayenne pepper. I used two of the tiny super spicy peppers they call mouse poops in Thailand. The proper name is Bird’s eye chili. This made my soup super spicy. Last time I only used one. I felt like living on the wild side today.
No broth to be found here so I used the spice here used in all soups and lots of other dishes. Zacin C or Vegeta will do. It is the same as throwing bouillon cubes into some water to create a nice broth.
I sauteed the minced garlic, The finely diced spicy mini peppers, and the tiny bits of ginger in 2 table spoons of coconut oil with a bit of the coconut flour. Then I added 2 cups of water and the seasoning to the frying pan.
Then added the mix to the rest of the pumpkin and coconut flour in the blender.
That filled the blender to the brim. With the lid tightly attached, I mixed it all up. Then it went into a big pot to simmer on the stove. After 30 minutes, we ate. A couple spoons of rice in a bowl with a few ladles of soup. Bon Appetit or Pijatno as they say here.
Chronicles of Serbia 
You make me tired 😉
I must try to be less boring… more spice needed! No pun intended. 🙂
Ha no, not at all! I meant that my ‘cooking’ this evening consisted of beans on toast! Your energy and passion for it makes me guilty 😉
Oh, my new fave easy peasy is peanut butter on toast and if I am really feeling frisky I add sliced banana. fast and yummy. I don’t get up to this kind of cooking often.
That makes me feel better 😉 Can enjoy my wine and sitting now 🙂
Hey, is peanut butter common in Ireland? I was super lucky to find it here. It is pretty uncommon.
I guess we can get it – I don’t really like nuts so I’ve never looked! I think we can get most things though. I’ve never heard of anyone having a PB&J sandwich like you guys but I guess it could happen!!
Yep, it is totally an American thing. I think I only want it because it reminds me of childhood. and it isn’t easy to get here. If I was home, I probably wouldn’t be so keen on it! Expat irony!
Ha, I’m exactly the same! I dream about ‘real’ chips with salt and vinegar – then never get around to having them when I’m home 🙂
two questions:
one: you’ve got coconut flour AND oil there ?
WOW, I still get it from Holland, as it’s common there, but heard to find (and expensive) here.
two: do you buy or grow your own ginger ?
I do buy fresh ginger here in dalmatia, but only to plant pieces of it and reproduce my very own.
(built a small glasshouse, and tested growing it, which worked great).
cheers from dalmatia, pim.
Hi! long time no “speak”! We do have coconut flour, but I brought the coconut oli from home. I was home for Christmas. I bought the Ginger at Roda Grovery store. Must grow it now. 🙂 Good to know you have had success growing it! 🙂 Great to hear from you Pim! 🙂
Hey, I am trying to help some English teachers here who have had some trouble concerning an English competition here. One of the issues was the use of the word fable as the root for the word fabulous. I never knew they were connected til now. Is that news to you? I know it is not a normal use in American English. It seems as if the test was written unfairly to trick the students, and maybe have been given to some in advance to peruse. I am going to write to them after I look into it more and get answers from you and other UK English speakers in case it is just my poor American English. Thanks in advance!