Roasted White Squash & Garbanzo Soup

Most recipes I make are by choice, and then sometimes I just make something by chance.  This was one such recipe, which was made by chance.  Our wonderful neighbors gave us this cute, beautiful looking white colored squash, the name of which, I still am not sure. Hence, it shall be called white colored squash. For all we know, it might be even a pumpkin.  To reduce some of the confusion, I have included the picture of it at the end of this post :). I had never seen this squash before, let alone try it.  In fact, I have never incorporated any type of squash in any of my recipes, ever! 

My Mom suggested I make something out of this one.  I didn't have any recipe in mind.  I wanted to make something which enabled us to get a taste of this new vegetable, as well as incorporate one more ingredient in the recipe, to keep the taste a bit familiar.  I chose garbanzo beans as the second ingredient as that's kind of a comfort ingredient which one can't go wrong with. I decided to make a soup out of this, and if you notice in the recipe below, the quantity of the rest of the ingredients is quite small, relative to the two main ingredients.  And this chance that I took, turned out to be a pretty good soup - one of my favorites now.  It was a pleasant surprise.

Recipe:

White Squash - 1 small/medium sized

Garbanzo beans - 1 can (small)

Onion - 1/4 of a medium sized onion

Garlic - 1 clove

Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon

Vegetable stock bulion - 1/2 a piece (Can instead use 1-2 cups of vegetable stock)

Salt and Pepper powder - to taste

Olive Oil - 1-2 tablespoons

Water - 5-6 cups (more or less based on the desired consistency)

Lemon juice - 1-2 tablespoons or to taste

• Chop the white squash into medium sized chunks, after peeling the skin and removing the seeds.
• Put the squash chunks and the garbanzo beans in a bowl, add 1/2 - 1 tablespoon of olive oil, freshly ground black pepper.  Mix it and put in an oven proof tray.  Put the tray in the oven to broil for and let it roast for about 10-15 minutes or until slight charred marks appear on it. 
• If using the vegetable stock bullion - heat 1 cup of water, add the vegetable stock bullion, dissolve it and keep it aside. Skip this step if using any other vegetable stock.
• Heat about 1/2 - 1 tablespoon of olive oil.  cumin seeds, saute.  Add chopped onions and garlic, and saute for 5-7 minutes.  Then add the roasted squash and garbanzo beans, the vegetable stock, and additional 4-5 cups of water.  
• Bring it to a boil.  After that, lower the stove temperature and let it simmer for about 20 minutes.
• After it has been cooked, add the mixture to a food processor and puree it.  Bring it back to the stove top on medium heat.  Add salt and pepper.  Let it cook for another 5-7 minutes.  At this point, add the lemon juice.  
• Serve hot.