Taste of Homeland: Pumpkin and Sweet Bean Soup

However, my parents and the whole family still sit down with "old dishes" a couple of times a month, not forgetting to show off the oriental medicine knowledge we learned from our grandfather: Pumpkin soup with peanuts and brown sugar is a very nutritious soup.

Eyes, even the smallest things can be seen very clearly thanks to pumpkin soup. Heart, smooth and rhythmic, no stagnation of meridians, thanks to pumpkin soup. Weak resistance, erratic weather causing fatigue, also thanks to pumpkin soup. When the weather changes and bones and joints "creak", also thanks to pumpkin soup. Mom laughed, why didn't you say it, sometimes when you're in a tight spot, not knowing how to get around, it's also thanks to pumpkin soup.

Pumpkin soup cooked with peanuts and brown sugar

I was still young, I just studied, played around and then came home to eat. But I got hungry quickly and often went to the kitchen, so I vaguely remember how to prepare it. My sister soaked the peanuts in hot water until soft and then crushed them. Before soaking, she told me to sit down and choose big, round peanuts with bright shells and set them aside.

My mother was very thoughtful, whispering to my sister from the kitchen to the upstairs. When buying squash, we should choose "publicly" to choose the secret type (meaning the type of squash that is sweet as honey). The squash must be round, heavy, with the squash segments rotating evenly around the body. The squash must be flawless, without scars. The priority is to choose squash with the stem still on because it can be kept for a long time. My mother often competes to peel the squash because my sister is still clumsy. If I peel lightly with the knife, the skin will not be clean, sometimes the knife will scrape my finger and make it bleed. If I peel heavily with the knife, the squash flesh will stick to the skin, half a kilo of squash is at best... 3.5 ounces. My mother peels quickly and skillfully. The squash pieces are square, sharp, and even.

I remember one time my dad complimented my mom on her "four perfect words". I wondered what those four words were? My dad chuckled and said they were... "pumpkin soup with sweet beans".

Cooking pumpkin soup is simple. But to have a good pot of pumpkin soup is not simple at all. First, fry a few slices of shallots with cooking oil to create a little initial aroma. Pour water and crushed peanuts into the pot. When the water boils, pour in the pumpkin and continue to stew. When the pumpkin pieces are soft enough, add sugar. Reduce the heat so that the sugar can gradually soak in. This is the type of brown sugar because the molasses has not been extracted, it is so sweet that it makes your tongue tingle.

Ladle the soup out to cool, eat with rice or eat alone, both are very rich. The pumpkin pieces are fatty, the beans are fatty, the broth is soft and fragrant. The fatty and soft flesh soaked in the sweetness of sugar makes the tongue ecstatic. So among the dishes that I often remember, "pumpkin soup from the past" is still the most lingering in my memory.

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