Recipe #28 - Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Nothing says "autumn" quite like the sweet, delicate flavor of roasted squash. This yummy soup was created by Sheri' for a wonderful Sunday night supper. We had it with a Caesar salad and a warm flatbread dotted with poppy seeds, black sesame seeds and cumin seeds.

1 large butternut squash, cut in half and all seeds scooped out and discarded
1 Tbsp. olive oil

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 sweet yellow onion, diced
1 rib celery, chopped
1 medium carrot, diced
1 cinnamon stick
Salt & pepper to taste
4 cups homemade vegetable broth (see note below)
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. curry powder
2/3 cup half-and-half or cream

4 Tbsp. sour cream or mascarpone cheese

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

Brush the flesh of the squash with olive oil. Put the squash halves on a baking sheet in the oven and roast until very soft, about 45 minutes to one hour depending on size of squash. Remove from the oven and cool enough to handle.

In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil and add the onions, celery, carrot and cinnamon stick. Saute until the veggies are soft, about eight minutes. Add the stock, cumin and curry powder. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for a few minutes.

Scoop the flesh of the squash out of the shells and chop coarsely. Add to the soup pot and simmer for another fifteen minutes or so. Remove the cinnamon stick. Using an immersion blender, buzz the soup until smooth. Add the half-and-half or cream and keep warm on low heat until serving.

Add a dollop of sour cream or mascarpone to each bowl of soup.

* Note on vegetable stock:

We make homemade stock all the time. It's free and easy. Whenever you're trimming and chopping veggies, take the trimmings that you'd otherwise throw away and keep 'em in a plastic bag in the freezer. When you need stock, just take all the frozen veggie scraps, throw 'em in a soup pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for an hour or more. Strain the stock through a fine mesh strainer.

We omit certain veggie trimmings that can tend to bring bitter flavors into the mix when overcooked, such as brussels sprouts.

Then you can add the boiled-down veggies to your compost bin. That way they can have three levels of use (food, stock, compost).