Greens and Tomato Soup: It has a flavor.

I've eaten made my fair share of bland, boring soups, and this is definitely not one of those!
I started with this recipe as the base:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spicy-Kale-and-Chick-Pea-Stew-11641
and doctored it cause that's what I do (and... the store was out of kale) and holycrapamazing and I'm SURE the original recipe is great, too.

Ingredients:
2 nice, big leeks, chopped up
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 green bell peppers, chopped
1 package of chopped mushrooms (if you like them)
1.5 - 2 lbs leafy green vegetables such as kale, mustard greens, swiss chard, spinach (or you can do a mix, which is what I did), stems removed and chopped coarsely
2 cans of chickpeas or other white beans (you can use 15 or 19 oz cans, depending on how bean-y you want it!)
8 cups of your favorite vegetable (or other) broth
2 x 28-ounce cans plum tomatoes including the juice, chopped
6-ounce can tomato paste
1 teaspoon chili powder (more if you want it spicy)
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon sugar
1 bay leaf

Directions:

1. In a bigass pot, sauté the leeks and garlic with a splash of the vegetable broth over medium-high until the leeks are tender.
2. Add the green pepper and optional mushrooms and sauté another 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the beans, rest of the broth, leafy greens, tomatoes AND the tomato juice, the tomato paste, and all of the spices. Mix well and stir everything together.
4. Bring to a boil and continue simmering the soup, uncovered, for an hour. Give it a good stir every 10 minutes or so.

Enjoy.
The.
YUM.
Look, you EVEN GET A PICTURE.

And I didn't even add Insta-Crap defects!

Side note, is it weird that handling those canned whole tomatoes reminds me of what it might be like to handle a human heart? Eeewww.

Creamy Pumpkin Soup

I took 3 or 4 different recipes for Pumpkin Soup and added/adjusted things from each until it tasted how we wanted. We've made several batches of pumpkin soup with small changes here and there, and the following is how we've gotten it to taste best.

The first time I made this soup, I actually bought a pumpkin from the store, cut it in half, scooped out the insides (and of course roasted the seeds with some salt as a snack, RIDICULOUSLY YUMMY), cooked the pumpkin in the oven for a couple of hours, then peeled the skin off and pureed it.... Um, www.sonotworththetrouble.org . Seriously, you may think doing every. little. thing. from scratch like that will make you some kind of domestic goddess....
Man, just buy the pureed pumpkin in a can!!!

Creamy Pumpkin Soup
This recipe serves 4 people.

Ingredients:
29 Ounces Canned Pumpkin (unspiced*)
14.5 Ounches Vegetable Broth (or Chicken Broth)
1/2 Cup Water
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Nutmeg
Dash Cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/8 Teaspoon White Pepper
1 Pint Half & Half
Pine Nuts, if desired

*seriously. UNSPICED.
I accidentally got the spiced kind one time, and thought I could get away with omitting the cinnamon/nutmeg etc. from the recipe and it would be fine... it was GROSS.

Cook:
In a large saucepan, combine all the ingredients except half & half. Mix well.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently.

Reduce the heat to low and stir in half of the half & half until well blended.

Cover and simmer until heated through.

Serve immediately with the remaining half & half on the table, for people to add to the soup as they wish. Pine nuts (toasted in the oven if you like) can be sprinkled in a small pile on top of the soup as a garnish.

Prep time: 5 minutes. Cook time: 20-25 minutes. Ready in about 30 minutes.