Ooo! Spooky Soup

It doesn’t seem right to serve an ordinary dinner on Halloween when you can have some fun. Here’s a meal that brings the goblin spirit to the table.

For this soup, use a small ghost-shaped cookie cutter or a pair of scissors to cut “ghosts� from bread. Toast them with cheese, and use the cheese-ghost toasts to garnish the soup. Serve this with Pumpkin Patch Salad, a bed of greens and little orange cherry tomatoes with a scattering of crunchy pumpkin seeds. In some stores, you can find pumpkin seeds (pepitas) already toasted.

Dessert? It’s in that bowl sitting by your front door.

Tomato Soup With Ghost Toasts

Active Work Time: 20 minutes Total Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Use bread slices large enough to give you 8 (2-inch) croutons.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, diced small

2 carrots, diced small

2 stalks celery, diced small

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes

3 cups chicken stock

2 slices white bread

3 ounces white cheese, such as Gruyere, Cheddar, Jack or Swiss, cut in 4 slices

12 whole peppercorns, optional

1/2 cup whipping cream

Salt, pepper

Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and chicken stock. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until the vegetables are tender, 15 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Meanwhile, using a cookie cutter or scissors, cut the bread slices into ghost shapes. Cut the cheese slices into the same shape. Toast the ghosts in a toaster oven. Place them on an oven-safe tray, then place the cheese on top. Use 3 peppercorns to make eyes and a mouth for each ghost. Put them back into the toaster oven and toast again to melt the cheese. (If you don’t have a toaster oven, you can broil the cheese toasts about 4 inches beneath the broiler element until the cheese is bubbly, 2 minutes.)

Purée the soup in a blender in two batches. Return it to the pot. Add the cream and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Heat, then serve in bowls with the ghost toasts on top.

4 servings. Each serving: 364 calories; 1,198 mg sodium; 44 mg cholesterol; 21 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 32 grams carbohydrates; 15 grams protein; 4.35 grams fiber.

MENU

Tomato Soup With Ghost Toasts

Pumpkin Patch Salad

Halloween Candy

COUNTDOWN

30 minutes before: Dice shallot, onion, celery and carrots. Mince garlic.

25 minutes before: Cook vegetables, add tomatoes and broth.

20 minutes before: Make salad and dressing.

10 minutes before: Prepare toasts. Purée soup.

SHOPPING LIST

Bread

White cheese such as Cheddar, Jack, Gruyere or Swiss

Bibb lettuce

Pepitas

Shallot

1 pint orange cherry tomatoes

1 (28-ounce) can diced tomatoes

STAPLES

Carrots

Celery

Chicken stock

Garlic

Olive Oil

Sunflower oil

Onion

Whole peppercorns

Red wine vinegar

Whipping cream