butternut squash soup

Can you believe that October starts at the end of this week!? For each year that I am not a student, the speed with which the summer passes me by gets more depressing. Thankfully, fall is my favorite season and butternut squash, one of my favorite foods, is everywhere you look.

In honor of autumn's arrival, I made a big pot of butternut squash soup yesterday. I make it so often that I don't really use a recipe anymore. But here is the gist, in case you'd like to make some too, with three delicious variations:

BASIC SOUP RECIPE:

2 tablespoons olive oil

one large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed

one large onion, chopped

6 cups chicken or vegetable broth/stock

salt and pepper

1. Heat oil in large pot. Add onion and cook until softened. Add butternut squash and stir to coat.

2. Add chicken/vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Cover pot and simmer over low heat for 25 minutes.

3. Remove soup from heat. Puree soup in batches in a blender or with an immersion blender (which I HIGHLY recommend if you don't have one). Season with salt and pepper.

THREE VARIATIONS

One: replace one cup of the broth with one cup of apple cider. While soup is simmering, sauté some sliced mushrooms in a little olive oil. When mushrooms are almost cooked, add some soy sauce to the pan. Stir mushrooms into puréed soup.

Two: while soup is simmering, cook one box of Uncle Ben's "original recipe" long grain and wild rice. When rice is cooked, stir in 1.5 tablespoons of truffle oil. Add cooked rice to puréed soup.

Three: add 1 tablespoon of minced fresh sage leaves to cooking onions when you add the diced squash in Step 1. Add 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese to puréed soup before serving.

Also in celebration of fall, I bought a "peck" of Empire apples (~30 apples) at an orchard in Red Hook this weekend which are currently being converted into applesauce in my kitchen. In cold months when berries are not in season, I like to mix a little applesauce into the greek yogurt I eat for breakfast every day.