Timonium Farmers Market - What to do with Those Purchases - Herbert Squash

Timonium Farmers Market - What to do with Those Purchases - Herbert Squash

The Wednesday market day in Timonium, MD will continue until October 27, 2011. The Farmer's Market is held inside the main gate at Maryland State Fairgrounds. I have been writing a regular blog blog weekly about what to do with your purchases. I had several requests for this to continue. The market is open from 3pm to 6pm on Wednesdays. Now that we are in the fall season you'll see more winter vegetables like these.

Herbert Squash are also known as Pampoenmoes and are a popular South African food. They are a member of the Pumpkin family and the flesh is very similar to that of a pumpkin. So, any recipe you would use a pumpkin for you could substitute this squash for. I am roasting the seeds right now to see if they are like pumpkin seeds.

I made a squash soup. I looked at a number of recipes and didn't see what I wanted to see so I put the ingredients I thought should be in a good soup and it turned out really good, in fact, I went looking for the left overs in the fridge and they were gone and that almost never happens in my house.

Herbert Squash Soup

1 Herbert Squash - remove the seeds and cut into 8ths - put them on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with black pepper, salt and drizzle with olive oil. Cook in the oven at 375 F until tender. Cool a little then remove the flesh from the skin and discard the skin. I actually put them in a container and put them in the fridge and used the next day.

Dice a medium onion and saute in a large pot. I use olive oil for almost all my cooking but you can use vegetable oil or any other kind of oil you like. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook onions until tender.

Add a 32 oz box of chicken broth. Use your favorite brand.

Add the herbert squash and bring to a simmer. I mashed up the herbert squash with a potato masher in the pot. Then I poured the soup into the blender and blended it until smooth. If you have an emersion blender you can use that in the pot.

Season with a pinch of garlic powder, pinch of cinnamon, pinch of allspice, pinch of nutmeg and simmer to blend the flavors. You can add salt and pepper to taste but I don't think you'll need it. You can adjust these seasonings to your taste too.

I served the soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. You could put a spoonful of sour cream to garnish if you choose, I didn't. It was great the way it was and I've already been asked to make it again. My oldest son was at work when I made it and there was a bowl set aside for him but someone else ate it along with what I thought would be my lunch for the next day.

This recipe should have yielded 6-8 servings.