Moscow Food Co-op Recipes

My kids love to help by blending corn soup.

Meals Kids Might Eat:
Blender Soups

by Jyotsna “Jo” Sreenivasan, from the October 2006 newsletter

My kids are fascinated with the blender. My four-year-old gets very upset if I blend anything without his help. Every once in a while I make a soup that needs to be pureed, and the kids thoroughly enjoy turning on the blender and watching the swirling contents become smooth and uniform.

I find that a blender makes a much smoother soup than a food processor. But it’s been a while since I owned a food processor, so maybe the newer ones are better at pureeing soups.

The process of pureeing a soup is a little tricky. Once you cook the soup, it’s best to let it cool a while before blending. You don’t want to be ladling boiling-hot soup into the blender jar, in case you spill it, or in case it spurts out the top. I often cook the soup in the afternoon and let it cool while I go pick up my younger son from preschool.

Before you blend, set an extra large clean pot on the stove. Place the pot with the soup close to the blender, and ladle the soup in until the blender jar is half full or so. Cover, blend, and then pour the pureed soup into the clean pot. Repeat the blending until all the soup is smooth. You can then re-heat the blended soup if necessary.

Theoretically, one way to get kids to try new things is to have them help out with the cooking. This sometimes works with blender soups. Maybe your kids will enjoy the process of blending so much that they’ll eat some of these soups!

I’m also including a recipe for “smart cookies,” which are really home-made granola bars. You can serve them with one of these soups – or not.

Squash and Apple Soup
(Adapted from 1,001 Vegetarian Recipes by Carol Gelles)
This soup is like velvet! It is so smooth, sweet and delicious.

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 ½ cups chopped, peeled apples
¾ cup chopped onion
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
2 cups vegetable broth (I use the Celefibr brand vegetable bouillon cubes dissolved in water)
1 cup water
2 cups cubed butternut or buttercup squash
1/8 teaspoon salt, or to taste (may be necessary if your broth is salted)

1. In a 3-quart saucepan, sauté the apples and onion in the oil until softened, about four minutes. Stir in ginger.
2. Add broth, water and squash, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until squash and apples are tender.
3. Let soup cool somewhat. Blend soup in batches until it is really smooth.

Creamy Corn Soup
(from Honest Pretzels by Mollie Katzen)
Note: don’t replace the butter in this recipe with oil! The smell and taste of the butter are heavenly.

1 tablespoon butter
6 scallions, minced (white and lower part of green stalk)
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 cups corn (frozen, canned, or fresh-off-the-cob)
½ teaspoon dried basil
1 cup vegetable broth, or the liquid from the can of corn
1 cup milk
½ teaspoon salt (you may not need this if your broth is salted)

1. Melt butter in a saucepan. Add the scallions, celery, corn, and basil. Sauté for eight minutes or so.
2. Add 1 cup broth or corn liquid, and bring to a boil. Turn heat down low, cover pot and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Add one cup milk, and optional salt if needed. Let soup cool.
4. Blend in batches until the soup is smooth. We couldn’t get this soup to be velvety-smooth, as in the previous soup. We still did have tiny pieces of corn in there, but it was very good.

Smart Cookies (AKA Granola Bars)
(from Honest Pretzels by Mollie Katzen)

1 ½ cups unbleached white flour (or ¾ cup white flour and ¾ cup whole wheat flour)
2 cups rolled oats
¼ cup oat bran or wheat germ
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 cup apple juice
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
¼ cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Possible additions: ¾ cup chocolate chips; ½ cup dried cranberries, cherries or raisins; ½ cup shredded unsweetened coconut; ½ cup chopped nuts

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Oil a 9 x 13 baking pan. Have a baking sheet on hand.
2. Mix together the flour, oats, oat bran or wheat germ, cinnamon, salt and brown sugar.
3. Make a well in the center of the mixture and pour in the apple juice, applesauce, oil, and vanilla extract. Mix until uniform.
4. Mix in one or more of the additions. Encourage your kids to use their clean hands to mix the stiff batter.
5. Scoop the batter into the oiled pan and pat it down evenly.
6. Bake for 30 minutes.
7. Take pan out of oven and cut into 24 squares. Put the squares on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes more. This allows the granola bars to become crispier all over.

Copyright: Copyright on articles, recipes, and images are jointly held by the Moscow Food Co-op and the respective authors, except were otherwise noted.

Return to Resource List

For additions or corrections to this page, please contact the Webmaster.