A recent tweet from a food blogger, asking for a vegetarian substitute for Matzah ball soup, inspired me to sit down and finally put to paper my recipe for Butternut Squash Matzah Ball Soup. I grew up eating homemade soup everyday. It was, mostly, chicken soup. Beef, Lamb, or Goat were mainly Shabbat and Holiday treats. Passover is reminiscent of the pungent aroma of the lamb soup slowly simmering in a huge aluminum pot on the stovetop. Lamb and Goat are distinctively malodorous—to put it mildly—while cooking. But, perfumed with a generous addition of the aromatic Howaige, our traditional spice mixture, we found it very tasty. I especially loved the Passover preparation. For the Seder meal, Matzah was broken into small shards straight into the pot of the hot broth. Spicy hot condiment, Hilbeh (Fenugreek sauce), was mixed into this viscous gruel, which was surprisingly delicious. This dish definitely makes the case for not judging a book by its cover. More than just satisfying, the vegetarian substitute, I am offering here, is wholesomely delectable.
