1) It’s made from my favorite squash: butternut
2) It’s entirely vegetarian (if you don’t count chicken broth)
3) It’s super easy to make
4) My family loves it, and it’s entirely vegetables
5) I feel like a gourmet chef when I put it all together and add a dollup of sour cream :)
My husband and I always eat at The Chef’s Table for our anniversary. I took him there for our second anniversary on a day when he was sick and feeling just awful. He wasn’t sure he’d be in the mood for the amazing steak he was going to order, but we decided we needed to go anyway. We got there and they mentioned soup, and Richard perked up. As it was November, their special soup of the day was butternut squash soup. Richard leapt at that idea. The soup was absolutely amazing, and perfect for my sick husband on a cold fall evening. And I vowed right then to figure out how to make that amazing soup.
Well, that hasn’t happened yet. But I did find a pretty good substitute! I searched All Recipes and found a good recipe for butternut squash soup. I’ve made it four or five times since then, and I think I’ve perfected it. So here it is: My version of that one recipe I found that one time.
Tip for people with no time and/or needy children: This soup calls for lots of chopped veggies. So chop them ahead of time. I did mine today while my kids napped, and it took no time at all. Then I just sat them on the counter (the veggies, not the kids) until I was ready to throw them into the soup. You could even do it the night before and put them in the fridge, or one time I was chopping peppers for that night’s dinner and chopped the peppers for dinner the next day at the same time and put those away.
Here's what I did:
1. Chop your veggies. You will need 1 good size (read: BIG) butternut squash, or two small ones
1 green apple (depending on how much squash you have. The ratio of squash to apple should be 3/1 once everything is chopped)
2 medium carrots
2 celery stalks
1 onion
Not necessarily in that order. But I do the squash first because it takes the longest.
2. Heat 2 T butter in a big soup pot
then throw in the onion, carrots, and celery. Sautee these together for about 5 minutes.
3. Add the squash and apples, along with 1 can (14.5 oz) of chicken broth and 1 can of water.
4. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 30 minutes, until the squash and carrots are soft.
5. Puree in a blender (or with a hand mixer if that’s how you roll) and then return to a clean pot.
*Caveat* I use a Blendtec, which has a soup setting that heats whatever you're blending. So instead of returning it to a pot so I can heat it up one more time before serving, I just soup it in the blender and put it in a serving bowl, where it stays warm.
6. Add about 1 cup of cream, along with pinches of salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cayenne.
7. Serve hot, with a dollup of sour cream.
Loveliness :)
Today I set aside a bowl of the pureed soup before adding the cream and spices, and Reuben LOVED it! I’m enjoying the way I’ve been cooking lately because he gets to eat a lot of what I do, and I’m sure he’s getting sick of the same old baby food jars all the time.
One day I want to try this soup without so many other veggies, so the butternut flavor will really come out. I tried a pumpkin soup last fall (terrible failure, but that’s another story) and I think that same pattern with butternut could be really yummy. I’ll let you know how it goes :)
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