Making Butternut Squash Soup

Now that the days are cool and the weather kind of dreary, overcast and with nightfall coming earlier, comfort foods are king.  Things like gumbo, chili, beef and vegetable soup, stews, rice & gravy, etc. provide nourishment and warmth.  After a long day, sitting down to a plate or bowl of any of the items I mentioned above is filling and satisfying.

One of the things we've added to our repertoire is Butternut Squash Soup.  My butternut squash crop was a total bust this year.  It grew and sent out long vines and flowered like crazy, but the squash on them either didn't set or they grew to about four inches long and withered and rotted.  I'll try again next year.  Since we didn't have a harvest, we did the next best thing and purchased a case of organic butternut squash from Azure Standard, a co-op we belong to.

So let's make some butternut squash soup!  As you can see I've cut the squash in half and seeded them.  I'm saving the seeds to plant next year.  Perhaps this will be a better batch.  I'm also going to add some composted cow and chicken manure to add some richness to the soil in the raised beds where I plant my vining squash.

Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds

Now we'll arrange the squash, 'meat-side' down in a baking pan with water on the bottom and put in an oven set at 350 for about 30 minutes.  

Baking the squash

When the timer goes off, we remove them from the oven and allow to cool for a bit until we can handle them without burning our fingers.  The flesh of the butternut squash is a beautiful golden-orange color.

Lovin' from the oven

Now we'll get a spoon and scoop out every last bit of the squash from the hard rind of the butternut squash.  It doesn't take long and pretty soon you'll have a big pile of squash which will serve as the base of your soup. 

Removing the squash from the rind

Meanwhile, in a stock pot, get 2 Tablespoons of butter, two cloves garlic minced, and once cup of onions sauteing. 

While the butter, garlic and onions are getting "happy" in the pot, we picked some jalapenos and some carrots (1/2 cup sliced) from the garden and began slicing them up.

Processing some fresh veggies

We added the carrots and peppers to the pot along with a half teaspoon of ground cumin, a half teaspoon of salt and a half teaspoon of pepper.

All the veggies in the pot, except for the squash

Earlier in the day, Tricia took one of our chickens out of the freezer and began to boil it.  After a long while, it rendered some nice, rich, health-inducing chicken broth.  We added 1 cup of the beautiful broth to the veggies in the stock pot and cook until the carrots are soft.

Adding chicken broth to the stock pot

All the carrots, onions, garlic, butter, peppers, and seasonings now get poured into the food processor and we run it until the contents are processed.

We then put the butternut squash into the food processor and pureed it until it was a creamy consistency.  Don't worry about washing the food processor.  It'll all be together in a minute.

Pureeing the squash

We poured the pureed squash into a dutch oven.

We poured an additional three cups of our chicken broth into the dutch oven that contained the squash.

Broth added to squash

Now we go ahead and add the pureed carrot/broth mixture to the squash in the dutch oven and stir it all up to incorporate the flavors.  Then heat it all up.

All coming together

Once the soup is nice and hot, turn it off and add 1/4 cup of some fresh heavy cream from the jersey cows and stir it up.

The cream of the crop

Now all we need is a ladle, a bowl, a spoon, and some fresh cut up parsley to garnish the top.

Homemade Butternut Squash Soup

It is so creamy and delicious.  While it tastes like something you got a a fancy restaurant, the fact is - it's a simple dish with only a few wholesome ingredients that anyone can make at home.  Make up a pot of homemade butternut squash soup. Your taste buds will thank you.