Butternut Squash and Ginger Soup

Today's recipe is compliments of my very good friend Jeffrey.

My favorite Sunday pastime is going to the farmers market with Michael, picking up all kinds of fresh and delicious-looking local vegetables, cooking the day away, and then sharing our victuals with friends.  We made many dishes on Sunday for a change-of-seasons dinner at Courtney's house.  We were primarily inspired by a pile of beautiful and fragrant white sage at one of the market vendors' booths, and used it in two of our dishes.  This creamy soup dish started off the meal, and is one of my favorites to make.

This is Michael here... I must say that this soup was absolutely incredible.  Butternut squash soup has a tendency to get a little thick and viscous, but Jeffrey's was smooth and creamy and loved by all.

2 medium butternut squash (about 4-5 pounds)
4 Tbsp. olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. curry powder
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
2 Tbsp. fresh white sage, minced
3 Tbsp. fresh ginger, shredded
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1/2 of an apple, peeled, cored and chopped
10-12 cups vegetable stock (more to thin later if necessary) 
salt and pepper to taste
sour cream and fresh chopped Italian parsley to garnish

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slice the squashes, and scoop out the seeded area. Lightly oil the exposed halves and place face-down on a foil-lined baking sheet.  Use a jelly roll pan or something with a good lip to it.  Bake for 1 hour.

While the squash is baking, heat oil in deep soup pot at medium to medium-high heat.  Add garlic and onion and sautee for 4 minutes, until the onions begin to bleed and become a bit translucent.  Add the brown sugar, curry powder, bay leaf, cinnamon, sage and ginger.  Saute an additional 3 minutes.  Add carrots and apple, followed by the vegetable broth.  Bring to a low boil and simmer until the squash comes out of the oven.

Remove the squash, peel off the skin (it should be easy), and dice into 1" cubes.  Spoon into stock mixture. Simmer another 10 minutes or so.  Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaf.  Using an immersion blender or working in batches with a traditional upright blender, puree the soup.  It's fine for chunks to remain. I like some texture to it rather than the soup being super-pureed. The immersion blender works very well to accomplish this.

This can be prepared ahead of time and reheated. When serving, garnish each bowl of soup with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of parsley. I also garnished with a fresh sage leaf last night right on top of the sour cream - - a lovely presentation but not a great idea. Unless it is fried or otherwise tenderized, sage leaves are chewy and fibrous, and thus not such useful as garnishes. Lesson learned - just use a sprinkling of chopped Italian parsley.  Otherwise, an amazingly yummy and easy dish.

Comments

[Nan]

I'm always on the look-out for a good "autumn" soup recipe - this looks like it fits the bill! Thanks!