Monday, September 8, 2014

Welcome September with Butternut Squash Soup

I love fall. I especially love fixing those warm, comforting fall soups and casseroles after a summer of salads and wraps!

This soup is so easy - and all because of one simple ingredient.


Did you spot my shortcut ingredient? That bag of squash cubes! Peeled, cubed squash. All set for your favorite recipe.

Does life get any better than this?

Here's the recipe:

Easy Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon oil - olive or coconut
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1 garlic clove, minced
2 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash (or any other winter squash)
2 cups chicken broth
1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage leaves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
dash of chili powder for garnish (optional)

Buying the prepared squash saves so much time. The only other prep you need to do is to chop the carrots and onion, and mince the garlic.

Mini-lesson: Mincing the garlic is easy if you have a garlic press. But if yours is in the dishwasher because your son used it to make one of his delicious concoctions, you can mince your clove of garlic this way:

Lay the flat side of your knife on top of a peeled garlic clove.














Smash the knife against the garlic clove with a
sharp rap, then mince.

The veggies look fabulous, don't they?


Saute the veggies in the butter and oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat until the onion is translucent.

Stir in the squash, broth, salt, pepper and sage. Cook until the squash is tender - about 20 minutes or so.

Remove your saucepan from the heat and let cool for a few minutes.

Run the soup through your blender, half the recipe at a time.

Or use your hand-held blender. Go ahead. I'm not jealous.

Not at all.

Pour into a bowl, garnish with chili powder if desired.


This recipe makes two servings, or one if it's the main course of your meal.

Enjoy!

17 comments:

  1. Be still my heart! My favorite soup in all the world. Thank you, Jan. And next month Phoenix will stop being a replication of H. E. L. L. with temps going down to the eighties. Hurrah. I can eat soup again.

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    1. Oh Tina! Temps going DOWN to the 80's????

      I would not survive. And don't tell me it's a dry heat. Your oven is a dry heat too!

      But, of course, you have those fabulous fruit trees to make up for it!

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  2. Tina, I can't imagine. Truly. I pray for you daily because I know my tolerance is nil......

    And Jan, I'm going to make this for Dave and me! Our butternut squash were in a higher elevation of the field so the torrential rains in January didn't kill the plants.... the lower stuff took the brunt. But with tables full of squash to sell, I'm nipping a bunch for us and making this! I've been roasting one or two a couple of times/week, and I need to find a better way of peeling it. Or maybe a better knife! Mine is dying to chop my fingers off or slice my palm so I must come up with a different mode. But I'm making this and I will love it!!!!

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    1. Ruthy, roast it cut in half, then scoop it out. It's the only way! I'll never peel another butternut again. It's a nightmare! LOL

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    2. With all your squash, Ruthy, this should probably be a daily recipe for you!

      And if I was planning to use fresh squash, I'd cook it first. Then you can scoop it out of the shell and freeze it. That way you'd have it ready to use whenever you want.

      When you use cooked squash in this recipe, you wouldn't have to simmer the soup as long - just until the carrots are tender.

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  3. Jan! I haven't seen those bags of already cut squash!! I love it! Will try to find asap. Thanks for the recipe!

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    Replies
    1. These bags are wonderful! The fresh squash in the store is SO EXPENSIVE that I only buy it occasionally as a treat. But buying it this way makes it easy to have butternut squash whenever you want.

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  4. I haven't seen bags of precut squash either, but now I'll look harder in the stores. Love this recipe - but I've never made it myself. Now I will! Thank you!

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    1. Our store has the precut squash in the produce section, near the other pre=prepared veggies.

      I'm frugal enough to pass by the pre-chopped onions and other veggies, but I had to try the squash. :)

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  5. And I just passed up butternut squash at the market Saturday. Will go on my grocery list for next weekend. So the diced squash -- could I do my own version to store some over the winter? Would I have to blanch them first? Or could I just throw cubed raw squash in the freezer? I'm excited to make this souip -- love it when I'm eating out but have never made it. And yay it's a fresh brisk morning up here. Praying the humidity has gone for good this time. I'm starting my official soup season with a lentil veggie soup. Yum.

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    1. Like I said above, if you want to freeze the squash go ahead and cook it first. I don't think it would fresh well without being cooked first.

      And I was going to do soup for lunch - we had a beautiful autumn weekend - but today the temps are going back up toward 90°.

      But - - wait for it - - snow is forecast for later in the week!!!! Yay!!!!

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  6. Jan...where were you with this recipe when I was on my liquid diet. I had to go searching the internet for a squash soup recipe. Definitely missed the already cubes squash, too. Of course, the recipe I used had me roasting the squash.

    Nonetheless, this look yummy. And very autumnal. Believe it or not, we're actually supposed to have highs in the 70s on Friday. Whoo-hoo! That's definitely a cause for celebration round these parts. :)

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    1. Don't blame me! I've been searching for a good, easy recipe for months, and finally found a version in Country Woman magazine that uses the prepackaged squash. THAT gave me the easy part :) The rest I could add in from other recipes.

      When you're on a time crunch with deadlines, the quick shortcut is a blessing!

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  7. I can't wait for this weeks 80s and 70s :-). Night shift this week well tonight and tues then have vacation and 2 mire days off til next Wednesday :-) cooler temps better for walking that's for sure. Thought at first I had squash in the freezer but it's sweet potato Randall's was clearing out. Need to learn some good soups to cook
    Susanna

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    Replies
    1. You could use your sweet potatoes in this recipe! That would be scrumptious, too!

      Hoping you get cooler temps for your days off :)

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    2. Sweet potato soup?! Hmmm
      Susanna

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  8. Oh, this sounds really healthy! And we have lots of squash ripening...

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