Seattle's Halloween Hearty Harvest Hen Soup Recipe

by Pam Koons

This Halloween, introduce your preschooler to Seattle’s abundant Fall vegetables and squashes with this unusual, but easy squash and cornish game hen soup recipe. Your preschooler can pick out the veggies at the same time as their pumpkin. Make it fun and educational by letting your preschooler do all the washing, placing and pouring. Crock pot it all day and then reap your hearty harvest on Halloween night!

Ingredients for one very full crock pot:

1 Cornish Game Hen uncooked 
4 16-ounce boxes of Pacific butternut squash soup
1 can chicken broth
3 potatoes cubed
½ cup dry barley
1 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
6 celery stalks chopped
1 green zucchini sliced
1 yellow zucchini sliced
Fresh parsley
Nutmeg, salt, pepper to taste

Involve Your Preschooler:

1. Place hen in crock pot
2. Pour soups on top of hen
3. Place all chopped vegetables around hen
4. Add spices to taste
5. Cover crock pot and cook ALL day until done.
6. Parents de-bone hen. Put meat back into pot.
7. Stir, eat.
8. Pour into soup tureen and Enjoy!

Expand On It:

Serve with corn bread and honey butter.
Use white rice or orzo instead of potatoes.
Substitute different root vegetables.
Cut a soup bowl out of an uncut loaf of hard bread.
Cut a soup bowl out of a small pumpkin or gourd.
Pour left-overs on top of brown rice.

Preschooler-Related Activities:

The fresher the veggies, the better! When your preschooler picks out their Halloween pumpkin, also pick out the soup veggies at the farm! 

Make pumpkin bread for dessert with your preschooler! Pop colored popcorn.

Read Pumpkin Soup and Delicious by children's author, Helen Cooper.