Recent cool nights have served as a reminder that fall is almost here with winter soon to follow.
The dip in temperatures is also an incentive to make soup and since the days are still summery, there are plenty of warm-weather vegetables still available. Those include tomatoes, basil, parsley, corn for chowder, peppers, eggplant, onions, zucchini, yellow squash, okra and kale.
While we tend to think of Labor Day as the end of summer, many great local vegetables can be found all the way up until the first hard frost.
This time of year, the first hard squashes are being harvested, and they also make great soups, whether you like to use butternut, Hubbard, kabocha, delicata, acorn or pumpkin.
If you cook a hard squash for soup, choose a big one or cook two so you have enough left over to make a sweet bread, muffins, cake, pie, cookies or lattes.
At a recent Plumsteadville Grange Farmers Market, manager Meg Lomax served bowls of fresh tomato-basil soup for those who were hungry. She shared her recipe, which is great paired with a grilled cheese sandwich.
1 ½ pounds tomatoes, cored and skinned
1 medium potato, diced
1 onion, peeled and diced
½ pint chicken stock
Ground pepper
Basil leaves
½ teaspoon sugar
Worcester sauce
1 clove garlic, peeled and diced
½ seeded hot chili pepper, diced (optional)
Parmesan cheese, grated
Sauté diced potato with garlic and onion, in oil.
Add pepper and chicken stock, sugar and Worcester sauce.
Skin and core tomatoes and chop roughly. Add tomatoes to potato mixture, stir and bring to a boil. Simmer for 30 minutes, then allow to cool slightly.
In batches, puree mixture in blender, adding fresh basil to each batch. Serve topped with Parmesan cheese.
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