Until a couple of years or so ago I had never had butternut squash soup. Not sure why. I don’t remember anyone making it growing up. In adulthood I had continued my picky eating from childhood and had not wanted to try it. I thought it would be gross. Only soup I liked was Campbell’s cream of tomato, still a favorite, and the occasional potato or chicken noodle soup.
I am still a picky eater, except for various Asian food I adore, but suddenly butternut squash soup looked appealing. I don’t recall seeing it at restaurants or in cans at stores. A couple of years or so ago I decided to try and make it. I followed a recipe exactly. It didn’t look like all the photos and it was bland. I consider myself a decent cook, and I rarely follow recipes, I always add and takeaway making a recipe my own, it usually works out. Making a recipe as is, is clearly a mistake. More just my inexperience making butternut squash soup. Looking back, it was too thin, too much whatever stock.
Recently I decided to try again! I looked at recipes and YouTube videos galore! It became clear I would not follow any recipe! The ideas I came away with are: roast vegetables in the oven, blend, then add liquids until desired thickness.
The only real recipe part, at least what I did, is roast: 3-3.5 pounds of butternut squash skin and seeds removed and cubed, 1 small onion, ends and skin removed and then cubed, and 3 mini bell peppers cut in half with ends and seeds removed. I put them on a foil lined cookie sheet in a 400° oven. After a half hour I took out the onions and peppers and put the butternut squash back in for another half hour.
At this point I tried to use a traditional blender. Not everything would fit but I tried with part of it and added a small carton of whipping cream and a little of the chicken stock. it was quickly clear this wasn’t going to work. So I put it in a pot and went to work with my immersion blender. I then slowly added chicken stock until I was happy with the thickness. Turned out 32 oz was the sweet spot. I had more just in case. Then I added spices, measuring nothing, but it turned out fantastic! Canned ginger, canned garlic, ground nutmeg, cumin, cayenne, black pepper, coriander, ground sage, Trader Joe mushroom umami, and cardamom.
I would have normally used fresh ginger and garlic, but can’t remember everything. In the future I may also add chive oil as garnish. Still, I am very happy with it.
Rainy Saturday Creative 