Spiderweb Soup
 
A healthy Halloween dinner to serve children before they trick-or-treat. Make fun Halloween designs using Black Bean Soup and Butternut Squash Soup!
Ingredients
Butternut Squash Soup
  • ½ large yellow onion, diced
  • 2 ribs of celery, diced
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 apple, peeled, cored, and diced
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 package of frozen squash, defrosted
  • 2 c vegetable stock
  • 1 t pumpkin pie spice
  • a few shavings of fresh nutmeg
  • juice of half a lemon
Black Bean Soup
  • 4 cloves of garlic, minced
  • ¼ t red pepper flakes
  • 2 cans black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1½- 2 c vegetable stock
  • 2 t cumin powder
  • juice and zest of 1 lime
  • 2 T canned green chills
  • 2 drops of hot sauce
Instructions
Butternut Squash Soup
  1. Heat about 2 T olive oil over a medium flame in a soup pot. Add onion and a pinch of sea salt. Sauté for about 2 minutes. Add celery, carrot, apple, bay leaf, garlic and another pinch of sea salt and cook for 2 minutes.
  2. Add squash, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg and stock. Stir. Season once again with sea salt and black pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer with lid almost closed for about 15 minutes, until veggies are soft.
  3. Discard bay leaf. Add soup to blender and puree in batches. Either cool soup or be careful to allow steam to escape in blender. Set aside.
Black Bean Soup
  1. Heat about 2 T olive oil in a soup pan over a medium flame. Add red pepper flakes and garlic. As soon as you smell garlic (30 sec.) add beans and stock. Add remaining ingredients. Season with sea salt and pepper. Add a bit more olive oil if you'd like. Allow soup to simmer for 5- 10 minutes.
  2. After you have pureed the squash soup, use the blender to puree the bean soup in batches. There is no need to wash the blender if you go from orange to black.
Spiderweb Soup
  1. Ladle Butternut Squash Soup into bowl.
  2. Using an everyday spoon, carefully draw 3 -4 circles of Black Bean Soup and dot it in the middle.
  3. Using a chopstick, draw lines from the center of the soup outward to the edges to achieve spiderweb effect. You can also make a jack-o-lantern face, a spider or a bat! Serve warm with Ghost Toast or garlic bread (to keep the vampires away). Happy Halloween!
Notes
Don't be afraid to use a spook to freehand the design. I tested bags and squirt bottles, but they made a huge mess and were difficult to use because soup is hot. The spoon method is easy to use. Like Julia Child always said, "You must be brave in the kitchen."

You can also serve this in a cool reverse effect, using Black Bean Soup as the base and the Butternut Squash Soup as the design. This also helps the soup stretch further because more soup is needed for the base than the design.
Recipe by Mamaguru at http://mamaguru.com/spiderweb-soup-a-healthy-halloween-dinner/