Flower Soup
The days were growing hot in Summer. Asarum took to waking up early to work in his garden before the worst of the heat set in. One morning, with the sun just barely peeking over the horizon, he strolled down the path to the shed for his tools. He saw a spritely little figure in the predawn mist, moving about the flowers.
"Hello?" he called out a bit cautiously. As the figure turned he saw it was his cousin Nymphaea, her arms full of flowers. He smiled and went to greet her. "What brings you here this morning? Picking flowers?"
"Not yet," she replied. "First I have to put back the ones I picked yesterday, otherwise they will start to wilt." She pulled a flower from her bundle and held it up to the stem from which she had plucked it the day before. She tapped it with her pinky and the flower rejoined the plant seamlessly. She carried on until her arms were empty.
"I was planning to harvest something to eat this morning, would you rather I help you pick some flowers instead?" Asarum asked.
Nymphaea thought for a moment, then replied, "Let's do both at once." She led him through the garden to his squash plants. Huge yellow blossoms sprang from behind large fuzzy leaves. "Take the male blossoms," she told Asarum. "Those are the ones that don't have any squash forming on them. I'll take some of the female ones and we'll use the squash they are attached to as well." They each flew about to pluck a couple of flowers, then tumbled to the ground under their weight.
They hauled their loot up to Asarum's cottage. The day was already getting warm. "What do we do with these?" Asarum asked.
"I'm going to show you how to make a very special squash blossom soup."
If you want to make a Big People version of their soup, try this recipe below from www.cookstr.com (© Christopher Idone):
Squash Blossom Soup
- 1 pound squash blossoms, reserve 8 of the choicest blossoms for decoration (about 60 blossoms)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 bunch scallions, including some of the green, cut lengthwise and thinly sliced
- 1-1/2 quarts chicken stock, reduced by half, or canned low-sodium chicken broth
- 1-1/2 to 2 pounds baby zucchini and yellow squash, chopped
- 2 cups heavy cream
- Salt and freshly milled white pepper
Remove the blossoms from the squash. In a medium kettle or saucepan, melt the butter. Sauté the scallions until wilted. Add the reduced stock and bring to a simmer. Add the blossoms and squash to the stock. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a separate pan, reduce the cream by half. Strain the broth into a clean saucepan. Puree the solids in a food processor. Fold the puree into the broth and add the cream. Season to taste and chill for 1 hour.
When ready to serve, decorate each plate with a reserved squash blossom.
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