Happy Noms

I love the flavors of fall. Apple, cinnamon, pumpkin, nutmeg, clove, orange, cranberry etc. – it’s the best. Slow roasted meats, various pies, and warm spicy drunks are also seasonally amazing. With that said, I was inspired by my favorite time of the year to make the following butternut squash soup.

Note: The following recipe resulted in a really flavorful soup, but the texture was very thick. I think it was because my butternut squash was really big, so the extra meatiness of it lent an extremely thick texture.

I tweaked this recipe I found, and came up with the following:

Ingredients:

• 1 Butternut squash (I used large, but I’d recommend medium – about the size of a clothes ironer as opposed to something as long as a Fat Tuesday)
• A pound of carrots, peeled
• An onion
• 5/4 Tablespoon of grated ginger
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 cups of low sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup of apple sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• Olive Oil
• Salt n Pepa
• Toasted squash seeds (recipe below)
• Creme Fraiche (I didn’t have any, but I bet it’d be good dolloped at the end)

Directions:

1. Cut the squash lengthwise and pull out the seeds. Then lightly coat the squash and carrots with olive oil and lay them down (squash skin-side down) onto a baking sheet lined with foil. Bake both of them in the oven at 375 for 45 minutes.
2. While you wait, soak the seeds in water and let the strings separate. Then pull the seeds out, and let them dry on a sheet pan with foil. Let them dry while your veggies sit in the oven.
3. When the squash and carrots are done cooking, let them cool for awhile and peel the squash. Then cut both the squash and carrots into small chunks.
4. Lightly drizzle some olive oil and salt over the squash seeds and toss them into the oven for an hour at 250.
5. In a large pot, coat the bottom with olive oil and saute some onions over medium heat for 6 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic, and saute for another 2 minutes.
6. Add the squash, carrots, chicken broth, apple sauce, nutmeg, and cinnamon to the pot; also season with salt and pepper. Then increase the heat so the soup starts boiling, and then reduce to a simmer and let it sit for 35 minutes.
7. Remove pot from heat, wait a couple minutes for it to cool, and then blend it (blend in batches if using a stand blender as opposed to immersion).
8. Serve with a dollop of creme fraiche if you want, and top with the finished toasted squash seeds.

Roasted carrots and squash

Everything happily simmering away

The soup had the strong spices (ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon) really come through and it was sweet from the carrots and applesauce, while still maintaining a very robust squash flavor. The garlic also leant a very, very subtle savory note to the soup that was perfect.  I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did!