It’s strange, but often in the fall, I cook not based on what I want to taste, but what I want to smell.  Granted, the scents I want wafting from my kitchen at this time of year are conveniently in line with the season’s best, like cooked squash and baked apples.  Oh, and cinnamon mixed in with both. 

But perhaps my favorite fall smell/flavor is ginger.  Maybe because it’s warming as the weather is just reminding me what cold feels like, maybe because it’s good for the digestion at a time when pies are essentially all I want to eat, or maybe because it’s just a special, zingy, delicious little rhizome.

This is why I was excited for–and immediately fell in love with–Heidi Swanson’s Green Soup with Ginger that she published this week on her always-inspiring 101 Cookbooks blog.  It’s like a bowlful of fall, from the simmering smell of sweet potato to the depth of tiny caramelized onion bits around every corner to the hefty 3 T of chopped ginger that join the party and perfume the air.

Healthy?  Um, yeah.  Delicious?  Um, YEAH.  Like Heidi, I didn’t puree the soup because I was so in love with the colors of the deep greens, orange sweet ‘tater, and dark flecks of onion.  But you can make yours either way.  Have a yummy weekend!

Click here for the recipe: Green Soup with Ginger

(image via: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/green-soup-with-ginger-recipe.html)

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