Souper!

You start with a chicken. You bake it, put it on a big plate and strip off what you want to eat. Half of the breast gets sliced for sandwiches; the remaining leg and thigh get saved for chicken salad; the pickings from the bones go great over mac n' cheese; the bones themselves, if you've got some time and some water, get boiled down for soup stock. A chicken, if you do it right, can last a while - at 79 cents a pound for the bird plus some veggies and a few pounds of potatoes, you could conceivably feed two people five wholesome dinners for 15 bucks. That's 1.50 per person, per day.

Out of all the iterations that chicken will go through over five days, it's the soup that doesn't get any credit. Soup feels like the last wheezing gasp before resigning yourself to hitting up the grocery store again.

(Chowder, before y'all New Englanders start getting antsy, is a completely different animal that, at least right now, I'm not qualified to speak to. Check back in five years.)

From a culinary level, though, soup is dead-simple - boil a picked-clean chicken, add vegetables and simmer until it's reduced by half; top off the water and do it again. Complexity is not a trait usually associated with soup. It doesn't really get much more difficult than that.

Pshaw.
This is a recipe for a split-soup - two simple soups, cooked separately, combined at the table, garnished and served. It's sweet and devilishly spicy, creamy and hearty, and with an undeniable stomach-filling bulk.

Ingredients:

Soup 1: Black Bean
(This soup is a version of David Ansel's from his book, The Soup Peddler's Slow & Difficult Soups, modified to make it fight better with the pumpkin soup. Check him out.)

• 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 large can (15oz) diced tomatoes
• 2 large cans (15oz) black beans, drained
• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 1/2 tbsp. ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• salt and pepper
  

Soup 2: Pumpkin
(This is a variation of a recipe found on Mom!Mom!.com, similarly modified.)

• 2 tbsp. butter
• 1 can cooked pumpkin (NOT pie filling)
• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup half-and-half
• salt and pepper
  

Garnishes (in whatever combination you like)

• green onion
• Grated cheddar cheese
• plain yogurt / sour cream
• fresh cilantro
• fresh parsley
  

The Gist:

Black Bean:
Saute the onions and garlic in oil in a pot until the onions are translucent and the garlic smells like garlic. Add the spices and commingle for a few minutes. Add the drained beans and the undrained tomatoes, cover, and simmer of low heat. The longer you cook it, the better it will taste. It's supposed to be spicy; you can adjust its heat to your whims, but keep in mind that it's only half a soup and that it will be tempered by its compatriot.

Pumpkin:
Saute the onions in the butter in a pot until translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients less the half-and-half, stir to combine, and heat to a simmer. This soup should be thick; if it's watery, simmer off its excess liquids. Take off the heat, add half-and-half and stir to combine. This one is supposed to be sweet, though just short of cloying - add more brown sugar if it's too salty.

Gently combine the two soups at the table, ladling one over or around the other. Garnish and eat.

Be sure you let me know how it goes if you try it.