Ginger Sweet Potato Bean Soup & Ginger-Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

 The first day of autumn this year brought with it the inspiration of cooking "fall" foods. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, is what comes to my mind. I didn't want to just make the boring old pumpkin pie, apple pie, and so on, even though they are really good. But I wanted to try something different. Something that actually wasn't a dessert.

  So what could be more appropriate than soup, on a breezy, autumn day. Ginger soup at that. I was trying to think of fall-like ingredients. There was a bag of yams laying around, so that was definitely a winner. I also had a lot of prepared white beans that I had soaked and rinsed, soaked and rinsed, soaked and rinsed, over the course of several days (I know that sounds excessive). So my end conclusion: Ginger Sweet Potato Bean Soup!

 Unfortunately, we didn't have any homemade bread on the day I made the soup, so I needed a side dish. We had some raw pumpkin seeds in the cupboard that I needed to roast at some point anyway. Thinking that the soup and seeds might as well "match," I sprinkled some ginger on them along with salt, pepper, and melted butter. The taste is fantastic, even with the unfortunate twinge of burnt taste (I don't know if it's because of the pan, the oven, or just my lack of skill, but I still manage to burn things fairly often).

 Anyway, by the time the soup was ready for dinner, I wasn't even hungry. The pumpkin seeds were just too good. =)

 Ginger Sweet Potato Bean Soup

olive oil

ground ginger

ground cloves

onions, chopped

garlic, minced

carrots, diced

chicken broth

yams

white beans

spinach

salt

pepper

Ginger-Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

raw pumpkin seeds

ginger

salt

pepper

butter, melted

Bake at 350 on a cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes.