Sukkos is the next festival coming up, and what we have to do for it is build a sukkah, kind of hut outside with a roof made of leaves and branches, and for 8 days we eat our meals in this sukkah. This is to remind us of the journeys the Jewish people made in the desert when we left Egypt and traveled to Israel for 40 years, and of G-d’s Divine Protection over us all.

If you live in Israel instead, or the Southern Hemisphere, say like my brother and sister in law in South Africa, Sukkos has lovely weather in general, nice and warm, sometimes even hot. If however you live in say, England, it is often cold, windy and rainy. (If it rains heavily then you are exempted from eating in the sukkah and can eat inside, but otherwise….)

So nice warm soups are a good starter for pretty much every Sukkos meal. Today, while my husband and children were constructing and decorating the Sukkah, I made the most delicious soup that we hope to enjoy later in the week in the sukkah. I used kabocha squashes that we had picked at the pick your own farm during the summer holidays but I’m sure other squashes or pumpkins could substitute.

Made one 64oz container ish. So around 8 bowls of soup

Ingredients:

Olive oil

4 small kabocha squash

2 onions

About 1.5″ root ginger

1 apple

1L soy milk

Salt and pepper

Method

  1. Stab the squashes, then microwave for 10-15 minutes.
  2. Put some oil in a big saucepan. Chop up the onions and cook in the pan.
  3. Take the microwaved squashes, (this bit is a bit messy, I wore gloves), cut in half, scoop out and throw away the seeds. Scoop out the cooked orange flesh and pop in the pan.
  4. Peel and cut up the ginger. Chuck that in.
  5. Peel and cut up the apple. In it goes.
  6. Season with salt and pepper.
  7. Give everything a good stir, let it cook a bit and then add the soy milk.
  8. Let it all bubble away and fill your kitchen with the most amazing smell.
  9. Blend.
  10. Enjoy.

Four out of five testers (H point blank refused) all agreed it was delicious and that they can’t wait to have it on Yom tov. That’s pretty good going in this house!

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