As I write, roughly 3 pounds of butternut squash sit in my oven, baking merrily away. It's been one of those crisp fall days that make you realize winter is on its way, whether you like it or not -- one of those days that always makes me crave soup. So here I sit, grateful for my warm little apartment and especially for its stove. My favorite fall dish, butternut squash soup, is only forty-five minutes and a few chopped leeks away!
Most of my recipes for soup come from Irma Rombauer's classic The Joy of Cooking. This was the first cookbook I ever owned, a Christmas gift from my parents the first year that I had my own apartment. And I have to say, as far as cookbooks go, nothing matches The Joy of Cooking in terms of breadth and depth of knowledge. It covers everything from the very basics (making tea, scrambling an egg) to the complex (meringues, hollandaise sauce) to the seriously-does-anyone-eat-that-anymore (porcupine, squirrel). There are also some extremely valuable tips on how to set a table, how to make cocktails, how to gut a fish, and how to can vegetables, just to give you the tip of the iceberg. I'll talk about The Joy of Cooking some more in a later post (you can expect plenty of cookbook reviews from me!) but for now I'll give you the goods.
Butternut Squash Soup (adapted from The Joy of Cooking and my mom's recipe)
Ingredients:
1 medium to large butternut squash
2 leeks
A thumb-size piece of ginger root
2-3 tbsp butter
4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups additional liquid (either stock, cream or milk, or a combination thereof)
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375 F. Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise, then in half crosswise. Scrape out the seeds and stringy stuff from the rounded end of the squash. Place the squash pieces skin-side-down on a baking sheet that has a lip (or a 9x12 baking pan). Add water to the bottom of the pan until there is about 1/4 inch of water in the pan. Cover the pan with tin foil and place in the oven. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until you can easily pierce the flesh with a fork. Remove the squash from the oven and let cool.
Dice the leeks. Peel the ginger root and mince it.
In a large stock pot, melt 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter. Add the leeks and ginger and sauté them until they are fragrant and the leeks become translucent (about ten minutes).
In the meantime, remove the flesh of the squash from the skin. You can either scrape the flesh out of the skin with a fork, or use a paring knife to peel the skin off. Once it is peeled, add the squash flesh to the pot. Add 4 cups of stock. Let simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and breaking up the squash.
Remove from heat and puree the soup. Return it to the heat and add in 2 cups of additional liquid (or less if you prefer a thicker soup). Salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot.
Notes:
Butternut squash is a type of winter squash that is in season in Illinois starting in late September. They keep for a pretty long time if you store them in a cool, dry place. It is high in fiber, as well as vitamins C, A and E.
Ginger root is one of my favorite spices, and it's inexpensive. I used about 10 cents worth of ginger for this recipe. Ginger generally comes in pieces about 6 inches long. You can store it in the fridge, but if I do that then it usually goes bad before I can eat all of it, so I actually store it in the freezer. I find that it's easier to peel that way, too.
I've read that leeks have lots of health benefits, and that we should all be eating more leeks if we know what's good for us. I can neither confirm nor deny this claim, but I can say that leeks are delicious! They have a delicate onion-y taste, which makes sense since they're basically the giant cousin of the scallion. When buying leeks, look for ones which are firm and damp, which indicates freshness. To cook them, trim off the end with the little roots, and cut off the green fronds at the top. Wash leeks very carefully -- they grow in sandy soil and as a result they are often full of sand.
My favorite tool for pureeing the soup is a stick blender. It's so convenient because you don't have to take the soup out of the pot to process it. If you eat a lot of soup (like me), then it's a good investment.
Variations / Serving Suggestions:
- Omit the ginger and instead add about two teaspoons of ground nutmeg.
- Substitute just about any squash for the butternut. Pumpkin and acorn squash work well.
- Add crumbled goat cheese to your bowl of soup. Also try: croutons, parsley, basil, crushed almonds, or feta.
Bon apetit!
