Summer Squash and Pasta Soup

If you have a bumper crop of summer squash right now - or just like the stuff! - try this easy soup recipe.

Melt 2 teaspoons of vegan butter (such as Earth Balance) in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add 3/4 cup chopped onion and one minced garlic clove; saute for 3 minutes. Add one and a half cups of yellow squash (buy small ones, halve them lengthwise, and then thinly slice, so the pieces fit onto a soup spoon!) Saute another 2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup dry white wine and cook for an additional minute or so until the wine mostly evaporates (it took me a bit more than a minute). Then add two cups vegetable broth and one cup water, and bring to a boil.

A note on the wine: I was in a French mood, so went with a Sancerre... look for a producer that's either bio-dynamic or practicing organic (since they're less likely to use animal products in the filtration) or one that's unfiltered altogether... that's your best bet for finding a vegan wine.

Once the broth mixture comes to a boil, add 2/3 cup uncooked ditalini pasta. Ditalini is a very short, almost square tube-shaped macaroni that works well for soups. Eden Organics makes a kamut ditalini that is vegan. (http://www.edenfoods.com/) You can find this shape from non-organic producers as well, but since regular pastas in this country tend to be enriched (iron being the most suspicious ingredient; I just learned it usually comes from pig corpses ::shudder::), then avoid buying this if you can. If you can't find the ditalini from Eden, try an organic short elbow macaroni, instead. Incidentally, I like the Ancient Harvest elbows, because they are a bit wider than other brands' versions, and thus look more like ditalini: http://www.quinoa.net/ Incidentally, since they are made with quinoa flour, they are higher in protein, which can never steer you wrong.

Phew - sorry for that long tangent! Anyway, add 2/3 cup uncooked ditalini pasta and cook for ten minutes. Stir in 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp. black pepper and 1/4 tsp. dried thyme (or use 1/2. tsp chopped fresh thyme if you prefer). Ladle one cup into each of 4 bowls for 4 servings of 130 calories.

Cost:
yellow squash $1.59
white wine $16.99
vegetable broth $2.69
pasta $2.99