Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Butternut Squash Soup

I love a good soup. Soup makes a great appetizer at a restaurant or a great lunch during a long day at work. Despite my love of soup, I've never made it in my life. I've made chili a bunch of times with a bunch of different recipes, but I've shied away from soup. I think I've been afraid, though that seems a bit weird to be afraid of a liquid meal. These are the issues that plague me apparently.

I know you've seen about ten million recipes for butternut squash soup lately, but this one is the easiest. I can't say it's the most delicious though, because I haven't tried the other ones. This one tastes perfect though - it tastes rich without hardly any fatty ingredients and it has a deep, full flavor that makes you want another bowl (and another, and another). John and I loved this soup so much when I made it for our dinner party on Sunday, that I'm making it again tomorrow for dinner. Crusty bread and velvety soup is the perfect meal on a crisp fall day. IMHO.

This is all you need - one butternut squash, one onion, one clove of garlic, kosher salt, black pepper, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, 2 tablespoons butter, and 3-4 cups of low sodium chicken broth.

In a large pot, melt your two tablespoon of butter.

Throw in your diced onion, once the butter is melted of course.

Let the onions cook for awhile until they turn translucent. This will take about 7 or 8 minutes.

Once the onions are cooked, add in your chopped pieces of peeled and seeded butternut squash. I will not kid you, peeling a butternut squash is a bit of a pain. Somehow you get this weird film all over your hands that won't come off. That is also a joy. Next time I might consider buying the pre-cut kind to make this recipe even simpler. Sue me.

Toss in a clove or two of pressed or diced garlic, because every savory recipe needs some garlic in my house.

Now add your 4 cups of chicken broth.

Bring this sucker to a simmer and keep cooking until the butternut squash is fully cooked. This will take 15 minutes or so. I would err on the side of cooked here as opposed to uncooked. No al dente squash, please.

Remove the squash with a slotted spoon and place in the food processor or blender. I recommend you work in batches so that the squash has more room to puree.

Blend until no chunks exist and it's nice and smooth. After making this recipe, an immersion blender landed a top spot on my Christmas list this year. That way all of the veggies in the soup would be the same texture. But alas, I got stuck with a food processor instead.

Add your squash puree back to the bowl and mix. This is also the time to add your spices - kosher salt, cracked black pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper. I added a generous shaking of each. (John likes spice, so he added lots of extra pepper to his.)

You can either choose to heat the soup for just another couple minutes and then serve it...or you can cook it for another 45 minutes or so, like I did. I wanted to thicken the soup up a bit, but mostly I was just waiting for the rest of dinner to cook.

I should have chosen our cute soup bowls to serve at the dinner party, but instead I used our generic cereal bowls like a big frump. Good thing the soup wasn't frumpy.

Easy and Delicious Butternut Squash Soup
2 tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into cubes
1-2 garlic cloves, diced
3-4 cups low sodium chicken broth
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Nutmeg
Cayenne pepper

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet. Add 1 chopped onion and cook 7-8 minutes, until translucent. Add cubed butternut squash, 1-2 cloves of diced garlic, and 3-4 cups low sodium chicken broth. Simmer until butternut squash if fully cooked (about 15 minutes). Remove butternut squash with a slotted spoon and puree in food processor (in batches). Add the squash puree back to the soup pot and stir. Add kosher salt, black pepper, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper to taste. Either serve immediately or simmer until ready to eat. Enjoy your easy, healthy, and delicious soup!

1 comment:

  1. The new camera really makes a difference. The food is just jumping off the screen and makes me want to eat it. Yumm.....

    ReplyDelete

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