Our Evolution of Soup

Stage One - "First Signs of Life", or "What's For Dinner" - 4 billion years ago.
The other night we were trying to figure out what to make for dinner. My wife decided to make soup, which was cool with me because she can make a mean bowl.

She grabbed the stew pot and started making vegetable soup. First up was to saute the onions and garlic. She added some fresh rosemary, and then she got the idea to try some pumpkin. I said it sounded like a good idea.

Stage Two - "The First Vertebrates Appear", or "From Vegetable to Gourd" - 505 million years ago.
After adding the pumpkin it was time to mix in the vegetable broth. Half of the broth came first and it was mixed in smoothly with the pumpkin, then the other half was mixed in.

Next the yams (or sweet potatoes) were mixed in.

Stage Three - "Along Came The Mammals", or "Back to the Drawing Board?" - 220 million years ago.
At this point my wife started to wonder... I want to add curry, but there's rosemary in there, do rosemary and curry work good together? This is also known as the "oh shit" moment. Off to the internet! After looking up some different recipes she was relieved to find that many had this combo. The internet is such a great tool for today's chefs! She asked if I was ok with curry, knowing that sometimes I'm not. Tonight I was fine with it though, onward with the soup!

Stage Four - "The Rise of the Primates", or "Stand and Deliver the Spices" - 75 million years ago.
Next up were all of the little things that make everything taste better: fresh ginger, paprika, chipotle powder, salt and pepper.
Then the rest of the veggies: frozen corn, frozen french cut green beans, and left over oven roasted red skin potatoes. I love it when leftovers can be made into or added to a new dish!

Stage Five - "Welcome Homo Sapiens", or "Come and Get It!" - 500 thousand years ago.
It was dinner time, we had our soup, with corn bread and butter on the side. The corn bread was from Trader Joe's, which has fast become one of our favorite store brands to buy.

After eating the soup I could taste the heat from the chipotle powder, but thought it needed a sweet flavor to compliment it. I asked my wife if maybe cinnamon or some nutmeg could be added to it to accomplish this. Right away my wife said she was going to add these but forgot.

Stage Six - "Current Day", or "May I Have Some More Please?"
Once we finished our first course she went out and added some fresh nutmeg & vietnamese cinnamon to the soup. What she brought back for a second round was exactly what I had imagined. Not to mention more corn bread with a little butter on top of it!

Excellent dinner my love!

My wife has said soup is the only thing she can make (invent) without a recipe, just by throwing things together. But I will try to give you the recipe, these are approximate measures:

1 Small Onion,
2 Cloves of Garlic,
1 Medium to Large Yam or Sweet Potato - pealed and cut into bite size cubes,
2 - 3 Cups of the Leftover Oven Roasted Red Skinned Potatoes,
1 Cup of Frozen Corn,
1 Cup of Frozen French Cut Green Beans,
1 Can of Canned Pumpkin,
6 Cups of Veggie Broth,
1 Teaspoon - 1 Tablespoon of Chopped Fresh Rosemary,
Curry, Chopped Fresh Ginger, Paprika, Vietnamese Cinnamon (regular cinnamon can be used, but this version has an excellent flavor - try to get some!), Chipotle Powder, Salt, Fresh Ground Pepper, Nutmeg - all to Taste.