Butternut Squash Soup

Last week when I was at the grocery store, I was drawn to the squash section. It showed the beginning signs of fall. The cool weather to come, the shorter days, and the coming of all things pumpkin. Starbucks has already jumped on the pumpkin train for the fall. For me however, the butternut squash was inspiring me. So I got one and it has sat in the fridge taunting me until yesterday when I got the umpft to get back into the kitchen. It was raining here and kind of gloomy so soup just seemed like the perfect idea. Went to my trusted allrecipes.com and looked at the top rated recipes they had to offer and many many reviews of what people had thought and done to change the recipe. Finally, I settled on the ingredients I was happy with. Here is the preview to how it turned out:

 

First, I started by roasting the butternut squash in the oven at 400° for an hour. I stabbed it a few times all over like you do to a potato and placed it on a baking sheet whole. Some people said half it but it's not necessary.  After an hour push a fork into it, if it goes smooth like butter, it's perfect! This picture isn't great but I wanted to show you that the skin just peels right off. Go ahead and peel it off and/or scoop out the meat. Discard the seeds and pulp.

  

Look how delicious and juicy it is! It should just scoop right out easily with a normal spoon.

Peel both an apple or 2 and a potato. The potato is going to give a creamy texture that allows you to use less cream cheese and lower the fat content. The apple is just to taste fabulous. Then chop them all up. Doesn't have to be perfect cubes, it's all going to get blended in the end.



Meanwhile, in a large stockpot, add 2 tbs of butter with the chopped medium onion and garlic. Cook on medium heat until the onion is translucent. It takes about 10 minutes. Then at the chicken stock and seasonings. If you want to make this a vegetarian dish you could use vegetable stock. Bring to a boil and dump in the squash, potato, and apples. You can stop there with the veggies and get a delicious soup but I wanted to add some more veggies that were going bad in the fridge so we added a carrot and about a cup of mushrooms.

Here is me geeking out in the kitchen. Got my new leg on!



Let that simmer, uncovered for about 30 minutes. Then it gets a little tricky. Put it in the blender or food processor with a stick of cream cheese. Use more cheese if you prefer. Then dump it back into the original pot. Put the heat on low and taste! Mine needed a little somethin' somethin' to round out the flavor and make it more complex. If it's just ehhh okay then chances are pretty high you won't want a whole bowl of it, let alone a second helping. So for me, I used a little trick I keep in my back pocket, I added about 2 tablespoons of sherry wine. This stuff is just for cooking because it is very potent! Taste and adjust as needed. Mine also needed more salt but I love salt. S doesn't like bacon (I know, it's really a crime, but what are you going to do?) so I didn't do this, but bacon would be good crumbled on top. If you like more of a sweet soup you could add some cinnamon and brown sugar. In an attempt to make the picture pretty we added "a dollop of Daisy" sour cream but it just sank into the soup...haha, oops. But it did taste really good.

We had a salad as our side and a nice crusty bread like a fresh French baguette.it.  We also had a nice dry white wine which cut the richness of the soup better than a red. After eating it S and I thought that it made a pretty good seafood bisque substitute. It is quite a but healthier than bisque (who needs all that heavy cream?) and would taste great with lobster, craw-fish, crab, or shrimp added in at the end. Who knew?!

Feels good to be back.

Butternut Squash Recipe:

1 med butternut squash

1 potato

1-2 apples (I used granny smith)

1 med onion chopped

2-3 garlic cloves minced

32 Oz. Chicken stock (1 boxed chicken stock)

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp marjoram

1/2 tsp nutmeg

(I did not, but some people said cayenne pepper added was a good twist)

1 8oz pkg cream cheese

2 tbs sherry wine