Butternut Squash Soup and Veggie Fritters

 In an effort to pursue the "mostly plants?" end of things, I present to you a vegetarian meal to rival the meatiest of meats:  butternut squash soup with crispy vegetable fritters!  And to make it all happen, out came the Cuisine-art.  Which was probably really, really grateful to be used.  It's like the Velveteen Rabbit of food processors, sitting alone and sad up in my highest cabinet.

After dicing a few carrots and zucchinis in the processor, I tossed them in a simple batter of flour, eggs, milk, and beer.

Then fried them.  In a lot of oil.  Who says plants have to be healthy?

Meanwhile, I diced and simmered a whole butternut squash (about 2 pounds) with one diced onion and six cups chicken stock.  (To make it fully vegetarian, you could easily trade out for vegetable stock.) When the squash was soft, I strained it out of the stock, quickly rinsed the food processor, and tossed it in to puree.

Added it back into the stock, seasoned with salt and fresh-grated nutmeg, and it came out the perfect sweet but savory autumn treat.

(Soup recipe here.)