Homemade Pepper Spray and Black Bean Soup

Does anyone know what happens when you try to soften jalapeño peppers by sautéing them for a few minutes in a pan? You fill your kitchen with a noxious gas somewhat akin to pepper spray. In fact, I'm fairly sure if you could figure out how to bottle it, you would have a self-defense mechanism. The sad thing is that I vaguely remember learning this lesson once before, albeit with crushed red pepper (used in a rub on steak and then thrown on a stovetop grill), but I still managed to repeat the mistake when I was making jalapeño-chedder cornbread last night. I was working from a recipe that called for canned chilis and since those are soft, I thought I should soften the jalapeños I was substituting for them. Then I sneezed and wheezed for the next hour.

The worst part is that the cornbread was HORRIBLE. I realized something was wrong with the recipe when the dough came out like soup, so I tried adding another cup of cornmeal and some flour. Even that wasn't enough though. After more than an hour in the oven, the cornbread was more like spoonbread. The flavor was good, but it was not cuttable or crumbly. Nic tried to make me feel better by saying, "Cornbread is hard to make." But let's be honest. It really isn't.

Luckily, dinner was not a total disaster because the black bean soup I made was a success. The soup turned out really delicious and was much easier to make than the cornbread. Added bonus it's really healthy, and if you use vegetable broth (I didn't have any in the pantry), it is even vegetarian. I'm sure it would be great served with, say, a slice of cornbread. Or something like that.

Black Bean Soup
Makes 4 dinner servings

Ingredients:
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic minced
glug of olive oil
1 jalapeño, minced (and deseeded if you want a milder soup)
1 tomato, diced
3 (15 oz.) cans black beans
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. salt

Directions:
-Heat a large pot with a glug of olive oil on medium heat. Sauté the bell peppers, onion, and garlic for 5 minutes, just until the start to soften. Add jalapeño, tomato, black beans, and broth.
-Bring soup to a boil over medium-high heat, then lower the heat and simmer 15 minutes.
-Season with chili powder, cumin, and salt.

Irish Soda Bread w/ Dried Cranberries

Sometimes, in over ambitious moments, I buy ingredients because I plan to make something. Like when I bought buttermilk to make a pumpkin butterscotch layer cake on a Friday night to bring to a friend's house Saturday morning. (Never happened.) Then I have a quart of buttermilk sitting in the fridge giving me the evil eye every time I open the door. I can hear it saying, "I'm going to go bad and smell awful and make you feel guilty for wasting me." Drives me nuts. And it's not like you can just throw some buttermilk on your cereal in the morning.

Then I saw this recipe that called for buttermilk on blog I like to read, herbivoracious, and it had about 15 less steps than the pumpkin butterscotch layer cake, and I don't even want to guess how many less calories. So last night when I got an unexpected reprieve from cooking dinner, I decided to make this so my oven didn't get lonely. It seriously took me about 10 minutes, start to finish, including washing the bowl, and there is only one bowl to wash. I really don't know why I ever made bread with yeast. This is just as good and there is no rising and kneading (well there's a little kneading, but nothing intense.) And there is no chance the bread will rise too much, overflow the bowl and make a mess. Not that I ever do that.

The bread was delicious for breakfast this morning with a little bit of butter. It's not a sweet bread but a nice hearty bread with a little tangy sweetness around the edges because of the cranberries. It is little bit denser than yeast bread, but not that much denser. (And if you live around here, where you can't buy decent bread even if your life depends on it, then it is probably lighter than some of the bread you've eaten.) A much better way to make buttermilk into breakfast than pouring it on your cereal. I will definitely be making this again, maybe with something else folded in instead of cranberries or maybe plain.

Irish Soda Bread w/ Dried Cranberries
Adapted from herbivoracious, which adapted from Saveur magazine. Go ahead adapt your own.

Ingredients:
2 cups pastry flour*
2 cups whole wheat flour
4 tbs. sugar (use 2 tbs. for a plain loaf)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 tbs. butter, cool
1 cup dried cranberries
1 egg, beaten
2 cups buttermilk

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
-Sift together flours, sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl.
-Cut in butter using two knifes until the butter is in very small little chunks (smaller than a pea).
-Mix in the egg and buttermilk with a spoon. A loose dough should form. It should be sticky but able to hold the shape of a ball.
-Add the dried cranberries and knead them into the dough. You can do this in the bowl.
-Grease a cookie sheet and place the ball of dough on the center.** Cut an X in the top with a sharp knife.
-Bake for 40 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow. (Internal temperature should be 180 degrees, if you have a meat thermometer you can use).

*herbivoracious notes that the pastry flour will make a more tender bread, but you can basically use 4 cups of any flour. I trusted him on this and used the pastry flour, and my bread was very tender indeed.

**The loaf pictured is half of this recipe. You can make it all as one loaf or you can divide it in half and make two smaller loaves. When making smaller loaves, it takes slightly less time to cook, 30-35 minutes.

Linguini w/ Clam Sauce

Some big cooking news came in this weekend: I will be hosting Thanksgiving dinner! (In my 700 sq. ft. apartment! For 12-15 people!) When you have a kitchen that small and that many people, you have to plan ahead. I ordered my turkey (free range, but not organic, I had to draw the line). I already have the menu down, except for the stuffing. I have figured out exactly how many and which casserole dishes fit in the oven. I bought two size roasting pans so I'm prepared for however big the turkey turns out to be. I have assigned tasks--Mom is bringing that huge salad she makes, Poppop is in charge of pies (if he decides to grace us with his presence), and Taylor is coming up with a fall cocktail to entertain pre-dinner. And I have contemplated exactly how to rearrange the furniture so we all actually fit!

So there will be quite a few Thanksgiving posts in the next few days, but for now, this very un-Thanksgiving recipe will have to do. One of my favorite meals my Mom makes, as I mentioned last week, this is how I make it. (How does she make it? Who knows, she doesn't measure anything or write anything down.)

This is my favorite pasta that is fast and easy to make. (Meat sauce doesn't count, it takes all day.) Even people that don't usually like clams (::Nic::), can appreciate this pasta. The flavor is not too fishy or too clammy. And you will be amazed how creamy the sauce gets without using any cream and with very little butter. It only takes as long to make as it takes for you to boil the water and cook the linguini. Be careful though, it is way too easy to eat several helpings.

Linguini w/ Clam Sauce
Makes 4 large servings.

Ingredients:
1 lb. regular or whole wheat pasta (I use whole wheat.)
2 tbs. butter
2 tbs. flour
4 (6.5 oz.) cans minced or baby clams, with juices
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper
2 tbs. fresh chopped parsley

Directions:
-Put pot of water on to boil. When the water boils, put the linguini in immediately.
-In a large sauté pan, melt butter on medium heat. Mix in flour and cook for 1 minute, just so the roux starts to darken slightly.
-Mix in clams (do not drain!) and bay leaf. Let the sauce simmer and reduce for 10 minutes or until it thickens. Add wine, and let it reduce again for 10 minutes or until the linguini is finished cooking.
-Cook the linguini according to the package directions for al dente/firm. Drain the linguini.
-Add the salt, red pepper, and parsley to the sauce, and stir. Add the linguini to the sauté pan with the sauce and toss with tongs.
-Serve topped with grated Parmesan cheese.

Cream of Mushroom Soup From Memory

I have an addiction to the Food Network. If Nic wasn't ferociously defending the remote control, it is the only channel I would watch. I don't like all the shows--a certain perky lady that adores acronyms kind of gets to me--but shows like Iron Chef and Good Eats absolutely enthrall me. I get mad when someone changes the channel during the commercial.

But even though I watch a lot of cooking shows, I almost never make anything I see made. I don't know why. I take some of the general advice I get on the shows, like Alton Brown's explanation of why brining makes meat more juicy, but I never feel compelled to make what I see made. Until this mushroom soup.

To be honest, if I hadn't found out my parents were coming to visit with only 24 hours notice, I probably would have never made this either. Without ample menu-planning time, I panicked. I had nothing prepped so I had to make whatever it was I was going to serve after work. And I had to buy anything I needed on the way home. I had the recipe for apple pizza lying around from when I searched for every recipe requiring apples known to man after coming home with 20 pounds of apples a few weeks ago. But apple pizza does not qualify as a meal. My solution to foods that don't quite cut it as a meal is usually to add a mixed green salad with a bunch of junk on top. But even with the salad this was looking pretty shabby. Then I remembered watching Barefoot Contessa a few days earlier, and she made this awesome cream of mushroom soup that didn't look too hard to make. A quick Foodnetwork.com search later, and I had the recipe. I gathered my belongings from my cube and left work to go grocery shopping.

Two metro stops later I realized I forgot the recipe. And if you remember from earlier posts, my apartment=Internet dead zone. So I had to recreate it from memory. The good news is I didn't forget any major components and the soup was really delicious. It was creamy without being overwhelmingly rich, and I was surprised how flavorful the stock turned out. Nic apparently doesn't like mushrooms (who knew?), but he ate two bowls. But you are probably starting to think that all I ever make is soup.


Cream of Mushroom Soup
What I remembered from this recipe

Ingredients:
5 oz. fresh shiitake mushrooms
5 oz. fresh baby portobello mushrooms
5 oz. fresh cremini mushrooms
glug of olive oil
1/2 lb. butter (1 stick)
1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
2 carrots, chopped
handful of fresh thyme
kosher salt
black pepper
2 leeks, chopped (dark green tops removed)
2 tbs. flour
1 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 cup heavy cream

Directions:
-Wipe the mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Do not submerge them in water; they will get tough. Remove the stems and set aside the caps. Roughly chop the stems.
-Stock: Heat a glug of olive oil in a large pot. Add the mushroom stems, onion, carrot, and thyme. Add a dash of salt and pepper. Cook over medium heat until the vegetables soften. Add 6 cups of water and bring the stock to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 30-45 minutes or until the stock tastes flavorful. Strain and reserve the liquid and return just the liquid to the pot. You should have 4 cups of stock. (Add some water if you have less.)
-While the stock is cooking, in a large saute pan melt the stick of butter. Add the leeks and cook over medium low heat until the leeks start to soften and brown, about 15 minutes. Slice the mushroom caps in1/4 inch slices. Add the sliced caps to the browned leeks. Cook until the mushrooms are tender, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the mushroom-leek mixture and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Add the white wine and scrape the bottom of the pan to deglaze. Let the mixture sit on low heat until the stock is cooked.
-Add the mushroom-leek mixture, then the the half-and-half and the cream to the pot with the stock. Salt and pepper to taste. Heat through, but don't let the soup boil.

Breakfast Burritos

When I started this food blog, my dear friend Taylor immediately told me that I should post this recipe. She fondly remembered me making these for breakfasts for our little group of friends a few summers ago in a tiny one bedroom apartment, converted into a two bedroom apartment I shared with three other people. (Don't even try to imagine it. It was horrible.) Next to my chili, this is probably the meal I have cooked most often for my friends, and they either really like it or don't have the heart to ask me to stop making it.

It took me awhile to get around to making my breakfast burritos for the blog though because they are not the type of meal you whip up for two. But last weekend while Nic and I were staying with MK and Joe in Frederick, MD, we made them these for breakfast. (Well, I made them. Nic was holding their puppy.) I didn't put the turkey bacon in because I forgot to get it at the grocery store, but they were still delicious. I had forgotten how much I love these. They were so good I made them again Tuesday morning when I was off for Veteran's Day. (Mom and Dad liked them too.)

Breakfast Burritos
Makes 6 burritos

Ingredients:
6 10 inch flour tortilla shells
9 eggs (I use 5 whole eggs, and 4 whites), scrambled
6 slices turkey bacon
4 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
canola oil
2 tbs. butter
kosher salt
black pepper
cayenne pepper
chili powder
paprika
garlic powder
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
salsa
sour cream
chives

Directions:
-Heat a glug of canola oil and butter in a large frying pan. Add in potatoes and cook for 5 minutes, until they start to get tender. Add diced onion and season with salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, paprika, and garlic powder to taste. (If you aren't sure how much to use, go easy on the cayenne and the garlic powder. You can be a little more heavy handed with the other spices.)
-While the potatoes cook, heat a second pan and cook turkey bacon. Place the bacon on paper towels and set aside. Clean out the pan and cook the scrambled eggs.
-When the bacon, eggs, and potatoes are all done, heat the tortilla shells in the microwave for 1 minute.
-Assemble tacos: potatoes, then eggs, then bacon, topped with cheddar cheese. Garnish with snipped chives, salsa, and sour cream.

Apple and Caramelized Onion Pizza

First, thank you to everyone who commented on their mom's best dishes, it was a lot of fun reading about those. I made my mom guess the five foods I listed (since she rarely reads this blog), and she got most of them right away, although the corned beef and cabbage threw her off. After blogging about all the good food my mom makes on Monday, Monday night I got to make dinner for my mom and dad for the first time in my apartment! They came down to visit for Veteran's Day, and we went to Mt. Vernon and this amazing cheese store in Del Ray called Cheesetique, which I will have to write more about later.

Monday night for dinner I made this apple and caramelized onion pizza with cream of mushroom soup (coming soon!) and salad. The meal turned out really delicious, and everyone liked the pizza, especially the caramelized onions. My mom and Nic both told me that it would have been better with Gorgonzola cheese instead of cheddar, and although I hate to admit when either of them are right, I think it might be true. You couldn't really taste the flavor of the cheddar even though it was sharp because the apples and caramelized onions had such a strong taste. The original recipe didn't call for caramelized onions, but they definitely made the pizza much more interesting than it would have been with just apples. They also made it feel more like a savory dish as opposed to a dessert. And of course, I love anything you can make with puff pastry because it means I don't have to struggle with making my own dough. I will definitely be making some variation on this next time I have company over.

Apple and Caramelized Onion Pizza
Adapted from Gourmet

Ingredients:
1 frozen puff pastry sheet, thawed and rolled out to 15X12 inches
2 tbs. bread crumbs
3 1/2 tbs. butter, divided
3 medium apples, cored and thinly sliced
3 tbs. sugar
dash of salt
2 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced
1 cup grated sharp white cheddar (or substitute Gorgonzola)

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
-Melt 2 tbs. butter on medium-low heat in a skillet. Add onions and cover. Cook over medium-low heat covered for 25-30 minutes or until the onions are a dark caramelized color. Try not to lift the lid often.
-Roll out the puff pastry on a flour surface with a floured rolling pin. Transfer to baking sheet and poke holes in the surface with a fork. Sprinkle the dough with breadcrumbs.
-Combine apples with 1 1/2 tbs. melted butter, then add sugar and salt and mix.
-Spread thin layer of apples on dough, leaving a one inch margin around all of the sides. Fold the puffy pastry edges up and over the edge of the apples.
-Bake for 35 to 40 minutes until apples are tender. Spread the caramelized onions on top of the apples then sprinkle with cheese and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, until the cheese is slightly browned and bubbly.

Top 5: Favorite Foods My Mom Cooks

I have been a little lazy in posting lately, but I swear I have an excuse! The wireless Internet connection we were "borrowing" from some friendly, unknown neighbor seems to have bid us adieu. It happened right around the time of the election so I'm guessing that the friendly neighbor is the one who worked for the campaign that did not win the election. What is the opposite saying of "every cloud has a silver lining?"

I have at least two good meals and a bread to post, but since I am not at my home computer because of the Internet problem, I have no pictures. So for now, this will have to hold you over...

My Top 5 Favorite Foods My Mom Cooks
1. Linguini w/ clam sauce (that's one of the meals I have ready to post!)
2. Pork chops with tomato sauce sauerkraut
3. Easter bread
4. Veal stew
5. Corned beef and cabbage (why does my Italian mother make this so well? I have no idea.)

Share your Mom's best bites in the comments.

Caramel Apple Muffins

Last weekend we finally went apple picking, on the last possible day before the closest orchard to us in Virginia closed. We had the camera all ready to go, and then forgot it on the kitchen counter. Of course. The orchard was beautiful, and the day was perfect. It was warm and sunny, for early November, and the hills were covered in fall colors. We had a blast pulling the apples off the trees with the hooky basket contraptions they give you. Maybe we had too much fun, because we ended up with 20 pounds of Stayman and York apples (and a gallon of apples cider). I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but when you are in the open air, it never seems like that much fruit. Then when you get it into your kitchen it expands exponentially. How does that work?

I've been eating apples with cheddar cheese, apples with homemade caramel, and apple pie all week. (I'm not a fan of my apple pie. My poppop's is better.) As a side note, making caramel is not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I read David Lebovitz's Ten Tips for Making Caramel and How to Make Perfect Caramel, got totally freaked out and afraid it would be a disaster/a third degree burn, then proceeded to use this Smitten Kitchen recipe. Easy breezy. No burns, and I even burn myself straightening my own hair in the morning.

So basically after consuming copious amounts of raw apples+topping, I felt like I should bake them into something. My aforementioned pie was still in the fridge less than half eaten, and I didn't want another desert sitting around that I would feel guilty wasting and guilty eating.

I adapted this muffin recipe from the power muffin recipe I usually use, so these are actually a decently healthful breakfast. Since I had the homemade caramel in the refrigerator I decide to use that to sweeten the muffins instead of just sugar. They aren't actually super caramelly because I didn't use that much, in the interest of keeping them from being calorie bombs, but they are tasty. I also made the applesauce to use in the muffins so that I could use up some more apples before they start to get funky. I only used 3 tbs. sugar to 10 small apples this time for the applesauce, so it was not as sweet as store bought applesauce.



Caramel Apple Muffins
Makes 12

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 eggs
1 cup apple cider (or juice)
1/2 cup applesauce
1 1/2 cups apples, diced small
1/2 cup caramel

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Grease a muffin pan with cooking spray or fill with paper muffin cups.
-Mix the first seven dry ingredients (up to and including baking soda) in a large bowl. Beat the eggs and stir in the apple cider and applesauce.
-Add wet ingredients to the dry mix. Stir until combined, then fold in the caramel and the diced apples. (Microwave the caramel for 20 seconds if it is not runny.)
-Spoon into muffin tin. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Yum.

Pasta Fagioli

When I was planning for Halloween, pasta fagioli was the first thing I thought of making. Which probably sounds weird to most people since it does not have any pumpkin or candy in, on, or even near it. But I always associate it with Halloween because my Mommom used to make a big batch of it as a pre-trick-or-treating meal for my cousins and brothers and I (and the assorted family friends, extended family and neighbors that came in and out of the house all night). I vividly remember shuttling bowls of it between Mommom's ladle in the kitchen and the costumed kids at the dining room table. (In case you didn't have the privilege of knowing me at the time, I was both the oldest cousin and the biggest suck up. I guess I'm still the oldest at least.)

I love pasta fagioli, probably about 50/50 for its taste and its nostalgia. And Mommom was smart, it was the perfect Halloween dinner for that many kids: cheap, hearty, easy. I didn't actually get around to making it on Halloween this year--Friday nights+kitchen+Kate=not happening--but I made it the day after. And I ate it that day, the next day, the day after that, and so on. A non-nostalgic Nic also gave it a big thumbs up. So to sum up it is delicious, hearty, cheap, and very re-heatable.

Also, by some miracle, this is the first pasta dish I'm posting. Bizarre. I think I grew up eating pasta 3 times a week at least...

Pasta Fagioli*
Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:
1 garlic sauce recipe
1 lb. ground beef (can be a little more or less)
1/2 medium onion
3 15.5 oz. cans kidney beans, drained**
1/2 lb. ditalini pasta or other very small tube (can be a little more or less as well)
Directions:
-Prepare the garlic sauce. Allow it to simmer for about 30-45 minutes so it gets flavorful. Make it on the watery side so the pasta fagioli will be soupy. The noodles will absorb some of the water. (It should be soupier than the picture. It had been refrigerated at that point so when I heated it up I added a little water.)
-Cook pasta in boiling water for 5 minutes. It will be very al dente/not what you would normally consider cooked. Drain.
-Meanwhile, in a frying pan cook ground beef with onion over medium heat until done.
-Add cooked meat and onion mixture to the garlic sauce. Mix in the drained kidney beans and the pasta. Cook until nice and hot

*Pronounced fah-shool, at least in my family. And yes, I had to look up the spelling. It literally means pasta and beans. Thanks for the translation Mom.
**If you look closely at my picture you may notice a few chick peas in there. I only had two cans of kidney beans in the pantry so I had to use one can of Trader Joe's marinated bean salad, which is kidney beans, chick peas, and some other bean that looks like a kidney bean. Not traditional, but no biggie.

Pumpkin Soup w/ Savory Whipped Cream

That, right there, is a big bowl of delicious. As you can probably tell, I've been making a lot of soup lately. This pumpkin soup, however, is hands down the best. I don't think it would quite cut it as a meal on its own, but it is an impressive starter for company or an otherwise boring meal. And it is really easy. (My friend Taylor pointed out that I say everything I make is really easy. But that's because it is!) The nutmeg and ginger bring out the flavor of the pumpkin, and the cream cheese with the sautéed onion and leek round out the soup. The savory whipped cream and roasted pumpkin seeds are a perfect topping and make it look that much prettier, but if you don't have the time/inclination/spare calories feel free to skip this step. The soup will still taste great. I don't know where I'm eating Thanksgiving dinner yet, but this will definitely be making its way to my (or my host's) table.

Before the recipe, a few words to the wise: Make sure you adequately salt the soup. The first time I made it, I used low sodium chicken broth and didn't realize how much salt I had to add to compensate.

And a note about the sugar pumpkin: to get 2 pounds of pumpkin chunks you need a three to four pound pumpkin--which is not that big, about the size of your head. Unless your head is really big. You also need a really good peeler for the pumpkin skin. If your peeler is dinky, you're going to have to use a paring knife. I've done it both ways, but Nic was anticipating a trip to the ER when I used the paring knife. He went out and bought a good peeler soon thereafter.

Pumpkin Soup
Makes 8 servings, as a starter

Ingredients:
soup
olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 leek (white only), thinly sliced
2 lbs. (about 6 cups) sugar pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cut into chunks
6 cups chicken broth
salt/pepper
1 1/2 cups cream cheese
3/4 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

savory whipped cream topping
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sour cream
pinch of salt
pinch of ginger
pinch of nutmeg
roasted pumpkin seeds

Directions:
-Heat enough olive oil to sauté onion and leek in a large pot. When the oil is hot, sauté onion and leek for about 5 minutes or until they start to become translucent.
-Add the pumpkin chucks and the chicken broth. Season with a little salt and pepper. Bring the soup to a boil on high heat, then reduce the heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
-This is a good time to salt the pumpkin seeds you removed from your pumpkin and put them in the oven on 450 degrees for 5-10 minutes to roast.
-Remove the soup from the heat. (If you want a thick soup, remove a cup of the broth before continuing.*) Stir in cream cheese, ginger and nutmeg. The cream cheese won't completely dissolve, but don't worry, the blender will take care of it.
-Blend the soup in batches until all of it is blended. Stir it all together and taste. Add additional salt, ginger and nutmeg to taste.
-To make the savory whipped cream, first whip the heavy cream with a hand or stand mixer (or a whisk and some upper body strength) until it thickens into the consistency of... well whipped cream, of course. Fold in the sour cream, salt, ginger and nutmeg.
-Top bowls of soup with a dollop of the savory whipped cream and roasted pumpkin seeds.

* I left all 6 cups of broth in when I made my soup. But why not just use 5 cups to begin with if you want thick soup? Because, at least in my pot, it wouldn't cover the pumpkin.