🌽 Southwest Three Sisters Soup

A warm, smoky soup that honors the harmony of corn, beans, and squash — deepened with saffron, sweetened by a single date, and finished with crispy tortilla rajas. Comfort food for when the leaves start to turn and the light gets low.

Lou LaMedica

Oct 16, 2025

TABLE OF CONTENTS

🌽 Southwest Three Sisters Soup

🫘 Recipe

Ingredients

Instructions

1. Sweat the aromatics

6. Finish with cream and lime

7. Make the crispy rajas

8. Serve and garnish

💭 Reflection

🎵 Cooking Soundtrack

🌽 Southwest Three Sisters Soup

A fall bowl of gratitude and golden light

There’s something about October light — how it filters through the trees softer, slower, and a little more golden. It makes me want to cook food that feels the same way: calm, grounding, and quietly bright.

This Southwest Three Sisters Soup started as a nod to How We Spent Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and what began as a simple gesture became something more — a reminder that ingredients (and people) grow stronger when they support one another.

Roasted butternut squash brings sweetness, Borlotti beans add earthiness, and roasted corn carries smoke and memory. Everything simmers in a golden saffron broth with a touch of Hatch chile and a swirl of cream, then gets crowned with crispy tortilla rajas — the spirit of corn in its crunchiest, most joyful form.

When I made it, the kitchen smelled like warmth itself — butter, saffron, and that first splash of white wine on the pan. It’s the kind of scent that pauses the day and reminds you to be present.

🫘 Recipe

Ingredients

For the Soup

1 tbsp butter

1 small onion, diced

2 Medjool dates, finely chopped

Pinch saffron threads (≈ 10–12 strands)

Salt, to taste

¼ cup dry white wine (Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio)

2 cups roasted butternut squash, cubed

1–2 Hatch green chile cubes, to taste

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp ground cumin

2 cups vegetable or chicken broth, plus more as needed

1 cup cooked Borlotti beans

1 cup frozen roasted corn kernels

Pinch cinnamon

¼–½ cup heavy cream

Juice of ½ lime

Black pepper, to taste

For the Garnish

2 corn tortillas, thinly sliced into “rajas”

Neutral oil, for frying

Salt, to finish

Optional: cilantro, cotija cheese, or a drizzle of chili oil

Instructions

1. Sweat the aromatics

Melt butter in a heavy pot over medium-low heat. Add onion, chopped date, saffron, and a pinch of salt.

Cover and sweat 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions soften and turn golden.

2. Deglaze with wine

Increase heat to medium, pour in the wine, and scrape up any bits from the bottom.

Let it simmer until most of the liquid reduces.

3. Build the base

Stir in roasted squash, Hatch chile cubes, smoked paprika, and cumin.

Add broth and simmer for 10 minutes so flavors marry.

4. Blend smooth

Use an immersion blender to puree until silky. Add more broth if needed for your desired consistency.

5. Add the Sisters

Stir in Borlotti beans and roasted corn. Simmer 5 minutes.

Season with salt, black pepper, and a pinch of cinnamon.

6. Finish with cream and lime

Remove from heat. Swirl in the heavy cream and stir in lime juice.

Taste and adjust seasoning — the soup should feel warm, mellow, and layered.

7. Make the crispy rajas

While the soup rests, heat a small skillet with a thin film of neutral oil.

Fry the tortilla strips until golden and crisp (1–2 minutes per batch). Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt.

8. Serve and garnish

Ladle soup into bowls and top with crispy corn rajas. Add cilantro, cotija, or a drizzle of chili oil if you’d like a finish note.

💭 Reflection

Some dishes are prayers.

This one started with the quiet intention to honor How We Spent Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and it grew into a golden, smoky bowl that feels like memory, gratitude, and nourishment all in one.

🎵 Cooking Soundtrack

If you want the perfect album to cook this with, put on Chick Corea — Return to Forever (ECM Records, 1972).

Electric piano and gentle percussion, a mix of calm and motion — it’s the sound of saffron swirling through butter, the rhythm of stirring and tasting.

The music glows the same way this soup does: quietly joyful, endlessly warm, and full of light.

Pressing the Reset Button — Finding Stillness in the Woods A Key Life Skill: Reflection as a Practice

Lou LaMedica