My friends and I took the kids to a local farm famous for its fall festival. We went down huge hay slides, rode the hayride, ate fresh apples, and drank fresh apple cider. Great time!
Leaving the farm, every person got a free pumpkin-yay. Of course I had to stop by the market and pick up few other fall favorites.
I remembered watching an episode of Barefoot Contessa on the Food Network, with Ina Garten making this Roasted Butternut Squash Soup. While inspired by this recipe, I couldn’t help but make some modifications. I added some ingredients, took out others, made up the amounts, and it worked out perfectly!
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I’ve cooked butternut squash before, but I’ve always bought it peeled and diced from the grocery store. Talk about convenience! This was the first time I started completely from scratch. While the experience of buying it from a local farm was worth it, it’s absolutely ok to make things a little easier on yourself by buying cut-up vegetables.
I used frozen basil cubes to make the soup. These are cube trays filled with frozen herbs, a product I will be reviewing in my next post. For now, you can use chopped fresh basil leaves.
Ingredients:
- 1 butternut squash
- 2 Empire apples
- 2 medium yellow onions
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1.5 c low-sodium chicken broth (or you can use water)
- 1.5 c water
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- Basil (4 iced cubes or 1 tbsp fresh basil leaves finely chopped)
- coconut flakes (to garnish)
Preheat oven to 400 F.
Slice the squash in half. Core and slice in half again. Peel the apples, and cut them and the onions into large chunks. Spread the squash, apples, and onions on a baking sheet.
Sprinkle the salt and pepper and drizzle the olive oil. Roast in the oven for 45-60 minutes or until soft. Check once or twice and turn the onions and apples over so they don’t burn.
When soft, use a spoon to scoop out the flesh of the squash. Cut into large chunks. Place the squash, apples, and onions in a blender with 1.5 cups of water. Blend until smooth.
Pour the puree in a pot, add the chicken stock, curry powder, cumin, cinnamon, and basil. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes. Add more water or chicken stock for a thinner soup.
When ready to eat, sprinkle fresh coconut flakes.
Serve with corn bread on the side. I followed the recipe on the back of Quaker Yellow Corn meal label but used King Arthur white whole wheat flour instead of white and cut the amount of sugar in half (used 1/8 cup instead of 1/4). Mr. Practical Nutrition didn’t complain about the lack of sweetness in the corn bread, so that means they passed!
Next time:
Coming up on Monday, find out about those frozen herb trays I’m talking about! And, I will be using the pumpkin, acorn squash, and many apples we picked this week from another farm, so stay tuned for fall deliciousness. Have a great weekend! Hope you get some fall fun!
