The equinox is a perfect balance between day and night, offering equal amounts of light and dark in our 24 hour cycle. What a perfect metaphor to hold in our mind as we bring that same balance into our bodies. Time to let go of the excess heat, laziness and wild abandon of Summer and prepare for the biting cold, introspection and long night of Winter… Autumn acts as a gentle buffer, filling our landscape with amber, marigold and crimson to ease this seasonal transition. We can do the same in our kitchens by crafting a hearty supper filled with the vegetables of harvest time.

Once the nights start getting cooler and dusk comes earlier, our family congregates in the kitchen at mealtime with more fervor. This week we used ingredients from the local farmer’s market, nearby Asian market and our cupboard to to create a quick yet satisfying soup with only 10 ingredients!

Coconut Curry Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients: Fresh onions, garlic, cauliflower, and carrots from our farmers’ market.  Coconut milk, kidney beans and chick peas from the health food store. Curry and ginger from the Asian store. Water. (Quantities depend on how much soup you wish to make, and your taste preferences; my advice is to experiment!)

Start with a heavy soup pot, drizzle in olive oil and add the chopped onions. Saute until translucent. Dice the carrots and add to the cooking mixture. Next add the chopped garlic and ginger and saute until fragrant. (Yes, you can smell when it’s just right!) Make a space in the middle of the mixture and add the curry into this space, cook the spice for a minute or two, and then mix thoroughly with all the ingredients.

Here you mix in the chopped cauliflower with enough water to cover all the vegetables. Add a can of coconut milk (we use a lite, organic variety) and allow enough cooking time for the vegetables to become tender. At this point add the (previously cooked) kidney beans and chick peas (or use a can of each) to the mixture. Allow sufficient time for the beans and peas to warm.

Serve in flat bowls, light a candle on your dinner table, and ponder this Frost poem while savoring the labors of your day!

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leafs a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

(Robert Frost)