Squash-Haters Butternut Soup

There are plenty of reasons to love butternut squash. It's orange and healthy and good. Unless, of course, you dislike squash. In which case it doesn't much matter to you if it's orange and healthy because you don't want to eat it. But maybe with this new soup you will. It involves butternut squash of course, but the squashiness does not overwhelm at all. It's silky and smooth and the browned butter gives it a rich caramelized (but not sweet) sort of flavor. I love regular butternut soup and I was skeptical that this somewhat similar soup would really be that different. But then it kind of was.

Despite the title of this blog I guess I can't promise that true squash haters will love this soup, but I think it's definitely got a shot among the squash dislikers. And even the haters might find that--while it's not their favorite soup ever--it's still worth the orange and healthy and goodness. A gateway squash soup if you will. Try it. You might like it.

Squash-Haters Butternut Soup
adapted from Wannabite
serves 6-10
Prep and cook time: 1 hour 20 minutes (or 30 minutes if use microwave method below or if you have leftover butternut squash from a previous meal)
Cost: $4.65
squash: 3.00, half and half .65, butter: .40, stock: .40, sour cream: .20

Note: I halved this.

Note: If you don't want to roast your squash in the oven or are pinched for time, cut them in half, take out the seeds, and then put them face down on a plate with a bit of water. Cover the plate with plastic wrap and microwave for 10-20 minutes or until the flesh of the squash is easily pierced with a knife.

2 large roasted butternut squashes
1 pint half and half
3/4 stick butter (browned)
2 Tbsp oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 1/2 C chicken stock
Creme fraiche to garnish (or sour cream if creme fraise is not yet something in your cooking database)
rosemary for garnish

Cut the squash in half. Take out the seeds. Lightly coat it with oil, salt and pepper. Roast the squash (open side down) on a large baking sheet for about an hour.

Near the end of your roasting time, add the butter to a small saucepan. Melt and heat until it begins to brown. You can do this quickly over medium high heat if you stir it with a whisk as it begins to bubble and brown (don't let the light-colored frothy bubbles on top fool you--underneath it could be browning--so smell it and whisk it--it should smell nutty and when whisked the bottom oily part should be browning). Or you can do it on low heat and let it heat and brown gradually. This always takes too long for my short attention span, but you don't have to pay it too much heed. When it's browned pour it into a glass dish (if you leave it in the pan it will continue to cook and burn).

When it's easily pierced with a knife, scoop out the flesh (it should come out easily). Put this in a blender, add the half and half and the chicken stock.

Blend well. Put this in a pot on medium heat.

Add browned butter, oil (which I actually forgot when I made this and didn't miss, but maybe it would be even silkier), and salt and pepper to taste. Heat until the desired warmness.

Garnish with creme fraiche or sour cream (and, yes, you really should--it's just delicious).

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Spicy Butternut Soup

This is the best butternut soup I've ever had. It's savory and punchy and perfect. I'm not a burn-your-mouth kind of spice girl and this is not that kind of a soup. But it's got the perfect amount of kick to play off of the sweet of the butternut. I like it without any dairy softening the blow as a matter of fact, though if you did find it a little too edgy you could add sour cream, yogurt, or cream.

The only sad thing about this soup is that it's not of my own creation. But I'm a humble enough woman to post it for you anyway because it's stinking awesome, though I must mention that if certain members of your family are averse to anything remotely spicy (hello, ginger, curry, cumin,and mustard), you might have to go with something more like this, which was our old standby and which will still make appearances on our dinner table since Kip and spices like to keep things simple, as in salt, pepper, and ketchup (ketchup being, as we all know, at the very foundation of both the American spice rack and a healthy food pyramid).

As a final note on the soup, I made it two ways. I made it the fussy peel-your-squash way, which was yummy. And I made it the lazy use-leftover-cooked-squash, which was also super yummy (in fact, I couldn't tell the difference). So although the recipe might not be mine, I'd like to take credit for this LABOR SAVING TIP: Buy a 3 lb squash, chop it into slices, take seeds out, and steam it one night as a side for dinner. Eat about 1/3 of the simple steamed squash (with salt, pepper, and a pat of butter if you please--it's wonderful). And then scoop out the remaining flesh and make this soup the next night. This will save you a good 25 minutes on soup night (and possibly a finger or two--seriously) and give you a healthy side dish the night before--for only 5 minutes of hands-on effort. Win and win.

I'd also like to point out that this very butternut squash was from my garden. I'v even got one more.

I'd also like to point out that it is January. Of course my point in all this pointing out is that I'm completely awesome and that--should there come to be some type of Armageddon-style disaster that destroys all our food sources--our family will survive for approximately 1 meal longer than we otherwise would have survived. Check that, I will survive for approximately 2 meals longer than I otherwise would have survived while my family will perish while watching me and moaning, 'gross' as they faint in their kitchen chairs.

Spicy Butternut Soup
adapted from Simply Recipes
Serves4-6
Prep time: 5 minutes with above labor-saving tip; 15-20 minutes otherwise
Cook time: 15-20 minutes with above labor-saving tip; 40 minutes otherwise
Cost: about $2.10
(squash: 1.29--Alid-style, onion: .20, chicken stock: .50-ish if made with granules; more if made with canned stuff, other stuff: .10)

Note: You could substitute an equal amount of acorn squash for the butternut.

1 two-pound butternut squash, peeled, seeded, diced, and cut into cubes.
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp butter
salt
1 yellow onion, chopped
2 tsp yellow curry powder
1 tsp whole mustard seeds or 1/4 tsp dried mustard (I made with both and both were good; also I worried the whole seeds wouldn't puree well and would be yucky chunks, but they weren't so don't fear them if you've got them)
dash ground cumin
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced (or 1 tsp ground ginger)
4 C chicken stock
1/2 C sour cream, cream, or yogurt (optional)
garnish with cilantro (optional)

1. Peel your squash. I do this by first slicing (and seeding) my butternut and then using a GOOD paring knife to peel the slices. Be sure you've got a good knife. If you don't, your fingers are at serious risk (seriously, I'm not kidding here). They're at a bit of a risk anyway, so be careful. If you don't have a good knife or don't want to take a risk, steam or boil your slices for 20 minutes and then scoop out the flesh.

2. Heat 1/2 Tbsp olive oil and a pat of butter and toss your peeled, cubed, seeded squash in. Add a few dashes salt and stir around. Cook until browned. (If using pre-cooked squash, you can skip this step altogether.)

3. Remove squash (it won't be soft, just browned) and set aside.

4. Add 1/2 Tbsp olive oil and add onion. Cook until lightly browned and fairly soft. Add curry, ginger, cumin, and mustard seeds. Stir until fragrant (about 1 minute). Add squash back to pan. Add chicken stock. Bring to boil. Then reduce to simmer, cover the pot, and simmer for 40 minutes. (If using pre-cooked squash, you'll only need to simmer about 10 minutes.)

5. When done, use an immersion blender and blend until smooth. You can also blend it in a blender. You'll likely need to do this in batches and put a hot pad or dish towel over the top of the blender just in case some hot soup tries to come squirting out at you. (Who knew cooking could be so fraught with peril?).

6. Add dairy if using. And garnish with cilantro if you wish.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Butternut Soup

Cheap Eat Challenge: Join us (or watch) as our family of 6 eats on $6/day.

We've been eating a little extra cheap this week. Why? Because we had a birthday to celebrate. And birthdays in this family mean cake and ice cream. Tomorrow we'll have a discussion of those sweet treats. But for today, you're stuck with the nutritious and super cheap business of vegetable soup. The good news is it's a mighty tasty, mighty simple soup packed with plenty of Vitamin A (among other things). The bad new is, it's not ice cream. Patience, my friends, patience.

I bought my butternut squash a month or 2 ago when they were on sale for $1.29 each at Aldi. Hard-skinned, or winter squashes, like butternut keep well for months (especially if you've got a cool place to store them) so they're a great thing to buy on sale and hold onto.

I tried making this in the crockpot, so I'd have a great way to make an easy recipe even easier. Alas, I didn't put it in soon enough. After 3 1/2 hours on high in the crockpot, the squash wasn't soup ready. It probably needed 2 more hours, but I'm not sure. I'll experiment more with that next time. If you want to give it a go, give yourself 6 hours on high. It's a creamy soup that gets pureed at the end so if it gets more time than it needs that's not a problem.

A note on sour cream: This recipe originally called for 1 1/4 C low-fat sour cream. I use the full-fat variety and need only about 1/2 C to get a creamy nicely flavored soup. And now, prepare yourselves for a brief rant on low-fat products. First of all, they're are generally more processed than their full-fat counterparts--sometimes undergoing severe chemical alterations. Secondly, they do not taste as good. There may be some that taste close to as good, but they never taste as good. And often they just taste not very good at all. Sure, you get used to them. Kind of. Thirdly, I believe that you need more of a low-fat product to produce a similar effect on your foods--in this case, you need more low-fat sour cream to get the flavor and creaminess your soup needs. Fourthly (is that a word?), they often cost more--if not pound for pound (and they often DO cost more pound for pound), then because you have to use twice as much to get a good effect from them. And lastly, I do not believe that they help anyone to be leaner. If anything, food that tastes good and is satisfying helps people to be leaner--at least if they've learned to listen to their bodies and stop when they are satisfied. Besides the fact that it generally doesn't satisfy unless you double the amount, there seems to be some scientific research supporting the idea that processed low-fat foods are more difficult for the body to know what to do with. (Maybe I'll look up an actual link if I've got time tonight. For now, you get the unsupported rant.) For example, there are those who argue that the fat molecules from full-fat (particularly raw) milk pass through the body undigested, while the messed with fat molecules of their low-fat brothers get sucked into the body. I do not know with absolute certainty that this is true, but I do believe it because in my personal experience it seems to be true. When I was in high school I ate almost no fat at all. I ate a lot of low-fat chemically altered foods. And I was not fat. But I didn't eat a whole lot. And I was a teenager. Then after I'd been pregnant a couple of times and learned to listen to my body and started eating more whole foods, prepared and "processed" by me, I got thinner. I didn't try to. I just did. End rant. (For now...)

One more note on sour cream (just in case that wasn't an earful, er, eyeful enough): You can substitue cream (or probably whole milk) for the sour cream. It's great both ways. If my soup is soupy (because the sizes of the squash differ somewhat), I use the sour cream. If it's a bit thick, I use the cream. The flavors are a bit different (the sour cream has more kick; the cream has a sweeter overtone), but both are fabulous.

A note on chicken stock: I used homemade in this. I actually used turkey stock leftover from Thanksgiving. It was fine, but it wasn't soup perfection. Chicken stock is better in this recipe--particularly a milder-tasting one that's not been complicated by a lot of different flavors/herbs/spices. The butternut is more impressionable than, say, a potato, so if you're using a stock with a strong flavor of its own, that will come out more in this soup. Because of this, a store-bought broth is great in this soup--it's mild and not other-season-y, which is what this needs.

A note on squash: You can cut it and prepare it the day of, but this is also a great soup to make it you have leftover butternut squash (or probably some other squash) lying around. I often make it with our squash leftovers, which will save you the time of peeling the raw squash.

A note on hearty add-ins: If you want to make this heartier, I have two suggestions for add-ins which I, for the record, haven't tried, but keep meaning to. I think it'd be great with chunks of potato, perhaps mashed just a bit. And I think it'd be great with a cup of white beans (I'm thinking northern white beans) thrown in. If you try these, let me know how they turn out and I promise to do the same.

Butternut Soup
Serves 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Cost: $1.89 (more if you use store-bought stock)
(3 lb butternut squash: 1.29, sour cream: .50)

1 butternut squash, about 3 lb
4 C chicken stock
1/2 C sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Cut up squash, take seeds out, and peel squash. I'm not gonna lie; this is a bit of a hassle, but it's still not more than a 15-minute hassle--less to an experienced hand with a decent knife.

Put the pieces of squash in a pot with the chicken stock. Bring to boil, then reduce and simmer covered for 20-30 minutes or until the squash is super tender. Let it cool for 2-3 minutes. Then puree it in a blender or food processor. Add the sour cream. Reheat if necessary (don't bring to boil), but for me it usually isn't. Season with salt and pepper and anything else that rocks your flavor world.

You can garnish with more sour cream, parsley, caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, and even the toasted seeds from the squash. I just eat it with bread.

PRINTABLE RECIPE