Spicy Spinach and Rice Soup

Yesterday was a bit hectic, so although I had time to cook, I had zero time to write about it! This morning I have one of my biggest midterms.

Last night, Pat and I made a tasty soup. It was great, because I was able to use a bunch of foods that I had in my refrigerator that were needing to be used anyways. Plus, I used, for the first time since I was home from my trip, my spices from India! And who doesn't love a warm bowl of soup on these cold winter days?

On the side, we had roasted pumpkin. Squashes are great, because you can store them for such a long time, and they are just loaded with flavors! This little pumpkin that I cooked up, is from fall! And it was perfect for use, in March. I hope you enjoy these new recipes:

Spicy Spinach and Rice Soup

4 cups of vegetable broth

1/2 tablespoon of salt

1 large bunch of spinach

1 medium onion, chopped

1 tablespoon of butter

1 teaspoon of masala spices (or) 1 teaspoon of curry powder

2 cups of precooked rice

1. Bring the vegetable broth to a boil. Add spinach and simmer for about 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a fry pan, melt butter and cook onions until they are transparent. Add to the broth and spinach.

3. Add masala and rice. Serve hot!

Roasted Pumpkin

1 small pumpkin

Olive oil

Chili powder

Pepper

Salt

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Chop and peel pumpkin into about 1" cubes.

2. Put in oven-proof glass pan, and drizzle with olive oil, until all the pieces are coated with olive oil.

3. Sprinkle with chili powder, pepper and salt, to taste. The pumpkin pieces should have a good layer of spices on them!

4. Pop in the oven for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, take out and re-drizzle with a bit more olive oil and stir.

5. Allow to cook for about 15 more minutes or until the pumpkin is cooked through.

The great thing about all of these recipes is that I am just choosing spices that I like. You can do the same thing! Experiment with spice combinations that you like, and mix up the recipes a bit. I'm sure you would never read this advice in a cookbook, but this is not a cookbook. This is just a bunch of recipes that a college student posted on the web. So play around with these recipes until you find something you just love! Thats all for now, byebye!