Let's Do Lunch Community

Mary, I made the  Butternut, roasted garlic soup today.  It is good.  Plan to make it again. I put the squash in microwave and it peeled  so easily.  Have enough for two more days.  My friend at church said she would give me as many as I wanted.  I also baked an acorn squash-Had it for dessert.  Sprayed it with CBINB and added a little splenda.  Sooo  delicious.    I fixed split pea soup.  It is really good.  I had two bowls of soup for lunch. Ha I'm stuffed with great foods.  Enough split pea for hubby and me tomorrow.  He is dipping ice cream at Bob Evans Farm Festival.  Rotary makes a lot of money for scholarships.  It is a beautiful fall day.  Our trees are giving our eyes a treat.  Thanks for all the good soup recipes, Joyful Friend

OK, I'll Bite.  How do you roast garlic in the microwave?


Ginny

Ginny, you cook the garlic just like you would roast it in the oven -- coated with a little olive oil & covered in a micro bowl.  You only have to nuke it for a couple of minutes until it gets soft.  It doesn't caramelize, but it gets nice & mellow & loses that hot sharpness that it has when it's raw.  I can't see heating up the big oven (and the house) for 45 minutes just to roast a head of garlic!  But I always try to remember to throw several heads of garlic into the oven when I'm roasting other foods, because it IS better that way.

Most techniques say to put in the whole head or slice off just the top so the oil can get down between the cloves.  I don't particularly enjoy squeezing out the oily skins afterward, and it seems to me like it wastes some of the garlic.  So I generally peel it all first with my silicone peeling tube.  After it's cooked I store it in an airtight container covered with a small amount of EVOO.  I generally buy about 20 heads of garlic at once and throw one into the micro just about every day. 

This is not about microwaving, but it goes along with the garlic question - I don't peel the garlic, onions, lemons, apples & oranges that I cut up & stuff into chickens & turkeys.  Everything gets scraped out of the pan & thrown into the stockpot along with the skin & bones from the carcasses, then strained out of the finished stock.  It gets defatted after it's cold.

Gwen, I appreciate your wisdom.  My mom always had a great garden, and in our yard, she had a garlic bed.  I always thought it looked like a flower at the top.  It stunk so badly.  I have cooked with it all my life, but sparingly.  I am using it pretty heavily now.  I made the squash soup with garlic, and it is addictive.  I work around the public, so have to use mouth wash and gum more often. Now I know how to cook several and keep in frig.  Thanks, Joyful Friend

Scarlett, I love your picture.  My mom was a wide reader and she read "Gone with the Wind" in early 40's.  Then when the movie came to our small town, she took us to see it.  I was probably 8 or 9.  I had to stand up throughout it.  It was the most beautiful story that I had ever seen.  I loved Scarlett's determination.  We were very poor materially, but not in the things that counted.  I have Scarlett as Barbie.  She is beautiful.  Joyful Friend

Thanks, Gwen, for the info on the garlic.  I'll have to try it.  I usually buy my garlic minced in little jars because I don't like to peal and didn't know what to do with except chop it (and that was already done in the little jar  )  I haven't tried this soup, it's next on my soup list to try.  We are in the process of heading to sunny LaBelle, FL and had a stop in Perry, GA, for a few days so I made the cauliflower soup.  OH, SO GOOOOOOOOD!     


Ginny

Made this soup today. Talk about delicious and filling!!!

Ollie

Ate it cold today....didn't even bother to reheat it. 

Ollie

I like the squash soups cold.  On the ship, they are often served cold.  JF

I'm going to have to try this one one day -- I do have 2 butternut squash in the house.  We just love the fries so much.  I love soups, though.

This soup sounds good. The only squash I have ever had in my life is zucchini. I have always been somewhat afraid of other squashes because I don't know how to prepare. Is there anything special I need to be aware of with butternut squash?

I have my husband peel it for me because it is tough. I use minced garlic and add extra to the mixture.  I also use more seasoning then called for.  I was never a squash eater at all until LDL.  I made the soup for my husband and took a taste and fell in love.  I am even eating pumpkin now which I have never cared for.  It seems like after being on LDL my taste buds have totally changed in the foods I like now. 
This week for the first time I am going to try a spaghetti squash and see how we like it.

I haven't had trouble peeling it, as I use a potato peeler and the skin comes off easily that way.  Have you tried a potato peeler, Wendy?

No just a knife.  We will try a peeler next time.  thanks