The title of Helen Cooper’s beautifully illustrated book Delicious! A Pumpkin Soup Story is somewhat misleading. While it is about a group of animal friends who have a ripe pumpkin for pumpkin soup, they end up making several different soups – fish, mushroom, beet and finally yellow/orange/red veggie soup – for their fussy friend Duck.

(Honestly, if it was me I would have given duck a couple of dollars and told him to go to the feed store.)

If you have a fussy eater at home in the four to eight-year-old age range, I’m sure Delicious! A Pumpkin Soup Story will be a popular children’s book at your home. All summer we’ve been struggling with Nathan being picky. I’m thinking of sharing Delicious! A Pumpkin Soup Story with him to inspire him to prepare a meal with me. 

Now that he’s such a good reader, I could have him pick an item like a soup to research in my large collection of cookbooks. If he finds a recipe he thinks sounds yummy, I will try making it for him as long as he helps write up a list, go shopping with me, and cut, chop and measure ingredients. After all, if he has more say in the planning and preparation, maybe he’ll actually eat what I cook up.

Since I know Nathan loves beets, we’ll be making the recipe included in Delicious! A Pumpkin Soup Story.

Pink Soup!

Ingredients:

1. 3 medium-size beets
2. 3 – 4 tablespoons of olive oil
3. 1 chopped onion
4. 5 cups of water
5. 1 or 2 cups of milk
6. salt and pepper to taste
7. yogurt or sour cream

Directions:

1. Put the beets in a medium-size saucepan. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.
2. Drain the beets and let them cool. The skins will then be easy to peel. Chop up the beets.
3. In a large saucepan, heat the oil and sauté the onion on very low heat until it is translucent. This will take about 5 minutes.
4. Now add the beets and cook them for 5 minutes.
5. Next, pour in the water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Let the mixture cool and then mash it, or, better still, puree it in a blender.
7. Pour it back into the saucepan and stir in the milk and seasonings.
8. Slowly bring the mixture to a boil and let simmer for 5 minutes more, then pour into bowls.
9. Plop in a large dollop of yogurt or sour cream, and stir.

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