BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP

Transcription

1 BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP Serves 6 to 8 By Dennis W. Viau; modified from a recipe in a magazine. I roast butternut squash often in winter, usually with other dense vegetables, and serve it as a side dish with roast meat. However, it also makes a great soup. I first saw this recipe as Pumpkin Soup. I don t care for pumpkin, unless in a pie; so I substituted butternut squash, made a few corrections, and the result was fantastic. This turned out to be a fairly easy soup to make. Ingredients: 3 pounds (1.3kg) butternut squash; peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch (2.5cm) pieces 5 tablespoons olive oil; divided Salt and pepper to taste 1 medium onion (10 ounces/285g); chopped 1 cup canned artichoke hearts; chopped 6 cups (1.4 liter) chicken stock, preferably homemade 1 cup heavy cream (optional) For garnish: Croutons, crackers, sour cream, chopped chives, whatever you might like Directions: Heat oven to 400 F (200 C). Place chopped squash in a roasting pan and drizzle about 3 tablespoons olive oil over the top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Turn the pieces to evenly coat. Bake until tender when pierced with a fork, 40 to 45 minutes. While the squash is baking, place the chopped onion in a deep saucepan with the remaining oil and sauté for 10 minutes over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, add the chopped artichoke hearts, and continue sautéing until the onions are a golden color, stirring often and reducing the heat as the onions start to brown. Remove from the heat and set aside. When the roasted squash is done, add it to the cooked onions with the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat. Using an immersion blender, purée the soup until smooth, or purée, in batches, using a blender or food processor. Strain through a sieve, pushing through with a ladle. Fibrous solids might collect in the bottom of the sieve. These could be from the artichoke hearts and can be discarded. Adjust for salt. Serve hot, garnished as desired. The Step By Step guide begins on the following page

2 1 STEP-BY-STEP 2 The recipe from which I got this idea was for pumpkin soup and it did not use artichoke hearts. In the video I said the artichokes are optional, but after tasting the finished soup I decided they should be mandatory in this recipe. They add complexity to the flavor and make the soup more delicious! Although I am not using heavy cream this time, I think it would make an excellent option for this soup. 2 Butternut squash can be difficult to peel. Start by cutting through the squash just above the large bulb at the bottom and trim off the stem at the top. Use a good sturdy vegetable peeler to remove the hard skin. It is a little challenging, as the skin is tough, but it can be done.

3 3 3 The trim can be stored in the freezer for making vegetable stock later. 4 Cube the squash into 1-inch (2.5cm) pieces. 5 Place the squash in a roasting pan. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and stir to coat. Bake in a 400 F (200 C) oven until tender when pierced with a fork, 40 to 45 minutes.

4 6 4 Chop the onion into a fairly small dice. Size doesn t matter here because these will be pureed into the soup later. 7 Chop the artichoke hearts coarsely. Again, appearances are not important at this stage.

5 8 5 Heat a large pot over medium-high flame and add the oil. When hot, add the chopped onion. 9 Sauté the onion until it starts to change color, about 10 minutes, reduce the heat to medium if it starts to brown too rapidly.

6 10 6 Add the chopped artichoke hearts and continue to sauté another 10 minutes. You might need to reduce the heat further as the onion browns and sticks to the bottom of the pan. When I am caramelizing onion, the heat under the pan typically ends up all the way down to medium-low by the time the onions are done. 11 When the squash is tender, add it to the soup pot with four cups of the chicken stock. The two additional cups are optional later if the soup is too thick. I found it way too thick; so I added the additional stock. My stock is frozen here because I make my own stock and store it in one-cup portions in the freezer.

7 12 7 Bring the soup to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and simmer about 10 minutes. 13 At this stage the soup is ready to be puréed. If you have an immersion blender (sometimes known as a stick propeller) you can purée the soup right in the pot. If not, you can purée the soup in batches using a blender or food processor. Be careful if you have a glass blender jar. The really hot soup could crack the glass. Allow the soup to cool a little before pouring into a glass blender jar. This is also a good time to adjust for salt, if necessary. If you wish to add heavy cream to this soup, for a Cream of Butternut Soup, you could add it after the purée process.

8 14 8 Although not called for in the initial recipe (they didn t use artichoke hearts), I found that my soup benefitted from straining out the small amount of fibrous solids in the soup, probably from the artichokes. 15 Here is my strained soup, ready to serve. This is the first time I made this soup and it tasted absolutely delicious. Of course, I do like butternut squash. Conclusion I found this soup relatively easy to make. I had never made a puréed soup before. This was the first occasion when I could use my immersion blender in soup. It worked perfectly. The flavor of this soup is so good, I considered it worth the effort and this will go into my collection of favorite recipes. I will definitely make this again. I would like to try adding heavy cream next time.