PŪRe Delicious: Squash Soup

As the weather gets cooler, opportunities for warm food gets greater. Enjoy.

Squash Soup

Squash Soup

I love (well we do, as in our family) vegetable soups. And there is no better time than when we start going into the colder weather to enjoy soups. I’m enclosing a recipe to make it easier for all of you, but I myself just putter with the amounts as I go along because I’ve been cooking soups for years.

Two things.

One, I feel you can substitute squash with any solid, flavourful vegetables and I use the same base for carrot, zucchini, asparagus and broccoli soups.

Two, I have NEVER used heavy cream although every recipe calls for it. I use 1 or 2% milk, sometimes extra vegetables and no milk or cream, and sometimes I throw in a small potatoe or two to thicken it up. It also makes it much healthier. You can experiment because the taste per se doesn’t really change that much just the texture/thickness of the soup.

Ingredients

This recipe serves 6 so you can increase or decrease accordingly. Decrease Serving

1 ½  tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 ½  pounds butternut squash, peeled and cubed
½  large onion, sliced
1 ½ tablespoons butter
½ tablespoon sea salt
½  teaspoon freshly-cracked white pepper
2 cups chicken broth, or more as needed
¼  cup heavy whipping cream (see comments above)
pinch ground nutmeg, or more to taste (if you like it)
Sour cream or plain yogurt (optional)

Directions:

Heat olive oil in a large pot over high heat. Cook and stir squash in hot oil until completely browned, about 10 minutes. Stir onion, butter, sea salt, and cracked white pepper into the squash; cook and stir together until the onions are completely tender and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes.

Pour chicken broth over the mixture; bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and cook at a simmer until the squash is tender, about 5 minutes (trust me this is not long enough, I’d say more like 15 minutes!).

Let it cool. The last time I poured hot soup into the blender it exploded! Then pour the mixture into a blender no more than half full. Cover and hold lid in place; pulse a few times before leaving on to blend. Puree in batches until smooth.

If you blend it hot, you’ll be ready to go. If not, warm up on the oven and if you are adding cream or milk, now is the time. Warm it on low to medium so the bottom doesn’t burn

To finish it I sometimes put a dollop of plain yogurt or sour cream on top, then the nutmeg (if you like it, not required), salt, and ground white pepper into the soup to serve. It also freezes really well.