I have a wonderful bride, named Judy. She and John were married here about a year and a half ago, and they recently moved to this area. (Recently, as in 27 days ago.) Judy and I have been having a great time going out and about and exploring the mountains together. One of our trips was to Barber’s Orchard fruit stand (such an understatement to call this place a ‘stand’) where we got apples and baked goods and gorgeous little butternut squashes. Is that right? Squashes? Well, we got more than one squash, ok? I did, anyway. Judy just got one. She said, “What are you going to do with those?” and I told her, “Make fabulous soup.” She asked how and I was almost embarrassed to tell her how easy it is.
Here goes.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
I used two, er, of the squash. Cut your squash in half (that’s the hardest thing you’re going to do, today) and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Lay the squash, cut side up, in a roasting pan. I love (love) garlic (love garlic, Love it), so I peeled six cloves for my two squash. Es. Squashes. Whatever. For the squash. Then I peeled and cut a nice sized yellow onion into quarters, and laid a quarter and a clove-and-a-half of garlic into the cavity of each squash half. Then I drizzled good olive oil over the whole thing.
Then it baked for the better part of an hour – until I could poke a fork into the squash and it was like soft butter (or like a baked sweet potato, or -oh wait! like cooked squash, yeah that’s it).
Next step is to get that stuff into the blender. You can use a food processor or what have you, but Larry has a monster commercial Vitamix, and that puppy makes some smooth soup. (And blender drinks, like the pina coladas last night with the fresh pineapple – oh, did I get distracted?) Ahem. Soup. Yes.
If you’ll run a sharp knife around the edge of the squash -just to break the ‘skin’ created by baking- and then score the meat of the squash (not all the way through!) it will simplify spooning it into the blender.
My blender held one squash, along with the quartered onions and cloves of garlic that cooked in each one, plus two cups of good chicken broth and a cup of water. The whole thing was repeated for the second squash.
Look at that! Is that gorgeous, or what?
Here it is, blended, with a bit of nutmeg, cayenne, white pepper, and salt.
And heavy cream. The Elixir of Life. Right up there with butter. Gotta have it.
Two notes: First, only a little of the cream floated on top, so there is a LOT more cream than you see pictured. Second, no I don’t have any idea what the measurement was on the cream. “A generous bit.” There ya go.
Finally, simmer and stir, simmer and stir. You’ll have a lovely treat in about half an hour.
Enjoy!
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