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| Butternut Squash Soup |
| Wednesday, September 26, 2007 |
 So this soup was the hit of my Mabon dinner on Sunday night (to celebrate the first day of autumn). I've been asked to post this a couple times, so, being the generous and obliging blogger that I am, I will. Please be careful with the white pepper, because it really has a kick that I wasn't expecting. I've never used it before and just assumed that white pepper (like vanilla and white chocolate) would be a milder version of black pepper. Nope. It's hotter, but it leaves a nice warmth in the back of your throat. Really great soup overall and, of course, I used mostly local ingredients. I adapted this Butternut Squash Soup recipe at Fine Dining (please ignore the obnoxious ads on that page). I had a vegetarian coming to dinner, so I used vegetable stock instead of chicken stock and it was totally fine.
Unfortunately, by the time dinner was served everyone was hungry and I didn't get pictures!
Ingredients
*3 fair-sized butternut squash (I think it was about 7 lbs)
3 tbsp butter
*1 large sweet onion, or 2-3 medium ones
*3 garlic cloves sliced
2 boxes (about 8 cups) vegetable broth (you can use a little less)
Salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
*1/2 to 1 cup heavy cream (this depends how "creamy" you want it)
Procedure
1. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Roast the squash to enhance the flavor on a baking sheet at 400° for at least an hour (it doesn't have to be falling apart, because the later steps will do that). Remove from the oven, scrape the flesh into a bowl; discard shells.
2. In a large saucepan melt the butter over medium high heat and sauté the onion until tender (this could take 5-15 minutes), then add garlic, letting it cook up for a couple minutes. Stir in the squash, vegetable broth, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer for 30 minutes to an hour (until all the flavors meld and the squash is very soft).
3. Puree in a food processor until smooth; return soup to the saucepan; add cream stirring constantly without boiling until heated through.
*Local ingredient
You can modify the recipe, as well, for a thinner soup. This one was fairly thick. Add more stock or water after pureeing and adding the cream if you feel that it's too thick. I made this the day before and let it sit overnight before pureeing, which I think added to the layers of flavor. I also probably added some Goya Adobo at some point, because I always do.
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posted by Rose @ 7:06 AM  |
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