Michigan Cottage Cook: THREE SISTERS SOUP WITH CHORIZO, SQUASH, BEANS AND CORN.PLUS HOW TO ROAST PEPPERS

One of the restaurants in Grand Rapids that I "like" on Facebook posted that they were serving Squash Soup with Chorizo. I never was able to get to the restaurant to try it, but I found the two ingredients intriguing. I wanted to try to make a soup using the sausage and the squash, but then I had to come up with other ingredients. I like soups that are chunky not smooth so I didn't want to make a typical squash bisque. I also like soups that have colorful ingredients so I decided to go with the Native Americans Three Sisters ingredients.

The Three Sisters, corn, beans, and squash, were an important and big part of the Native Americans diet all across the country. The beans add two amino acids missing in the corn. When eaten together, all the amino acids are there to form a complete protein. All the "Sisters" can be stored for the winter or for when food isn't readily available.

THREE SISTERS SOUP WITH CHORIZO, SQUASH, BEANS, AND CORN OR MAIZE

When my children were young we lived in Missouri and I was "Earth Mother". I made almost everything from "scratch". Sugar was the evil ingredient for the 1970's so I had a bee hive in the backyard to harvest honey. I used the honey in place of sugar whenever I could. I even made jams and jellies with honey instead of sugar.

I had a big organic garden powered by the manure from my donkeys. I grew ingredients I couldn't buy in our small town like pea pods and tomatillos plus the normal vegetables found in a garden. I had read that the Native American planted the Three Sisters together. The corn stalks became the "poles" for the beans to grow on. The bean plants added nitrogen to the soil which is a fertilizer. The big squash leaves covered the ground under the beans keeping the ground shaded so it stayed moist plus the big leaves helped choke out weed growth.

I always love to try new things so one year I planted the corn, beans, and squash all together like the Native Americans. Unlike the Native Americans, I left my garden to go to Michigan to escape the hot, humid days of August in Missouri. I came back to Missouri when school started. I went out to my garden and there was this big tall cubed-shaped area of solid green. It would have taken a machete to get into the greenery to harvest anything. I was afraid if I went in, I be lost forever or at least until it snowed.

I used hominy in the soup because I liked the texture it gives the soup. Hominy is corn kernels which are dried and then soaked in lime, calcium hydroxide. This process goes back to the Aztec Indians who used wood ashes to process the their corn into Nixtamal or hominy. When Nixtamal is ground it becomes masa which is used to make corn tortillas.

JULIE'S THREE SISTERS SOUP WITH CHORIZO, SQUASH, BEANS, AND CORN OR MAIZE

If you don't like hominy, use regular corn canned or frozen.

12 oz. mild Chorizo

1 medium onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 (32oz) box of chicken broth

1 (12oz) box frozen cooked winter squash

1 (15oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 (15.5oz) can white hominy (posole)

1 red bell pepper, roasted, peeled and chopped

2 Poblano peppers, roasted, peeled and chopped

4 Anaheim green chiles or (7oz) canned chopped green chiles

Salt and pepper, if desired

Cumin, if desired

Red pepper, if desired

Ingredients: Squash, black beans, hominy or corn, chorizo sausage, garlic, onion, chicken stock, red bell pepper, Poblano pepper, green chiles, cumin, salt, black pepper, and red pepper.

Take the casing off the Chorizo and put the meat in a hot skillet.

Break meat up and saute until cooked. Drain well.

Chop the onion and mince the garlic.

Draining sausage.

Saute onion and garlic until they soften.

In a large pot, put the chicken broth and squash.

When onions and garlic are done, put them in the pot with the squash.

Drain and rinse the black beans.

Chop the roasted and peeled chiles.

Put the peppers in the soup pot.

Put rinsed and drained black beans in pot.

Put drained hominy in the pot. Season with cumin, red pepper, salt and pepper, if desire. I found the Chorizo sausage gave the soup plenty of seasoning and I didn't add anymore. Cover the pot and simmer the soup to give the flavors a chance to meld.