Butternut Squash Soup That Will Warm Your Heart

Butternut squash will crawl out of your stomach, dig a hole through your esophagus,  and make its way over to your heart to give it a big hug.

That sounds a lot less cute than I thought it would.

Point is: no vegetable is as comforting as butternut squash. Brussel sprouts are far too serious to offer any real friendliness. Carrots are too carefree. And broccoli… just forget about broccoli. Do you really believe broccoli has time to give you a hug?? Think about it.

So it’s important that we take full advantage of butternut squash while we can. If you haven’t whipped out your winter squash recipes, now is the time to do it. The months throughout which it’s appropriate will be over before you know it.

Below is a delicious recipe to start with. It’s an adaptation of Mark Bittman’s recipe. It’s a good soup for dorm cooking because you don’t need to puree it (although, it does taste even better pureed so if your dorm kitchen is particularly well equipped or you’re not a student then finish this soup off by pureeing it after it’s simmered on the stove for 25 minutes).

Ingredients

• 2 pounds butternut squash, cut into smallish cubes
• 2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced
• 1 large yellow onion, quartered
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 4 slices of bacon, chopped
• 1/4 tablespoon of ground cloves
• 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon
• 5 sage leaves, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 6 cups vegetable or chicken stock
• Little bit of olive oil

Steps

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Put the squash, apples, onion, garlic, and bacon in a roasting pan.
3. Drizzle with olive oil, salt, pepper, ground cloves, and cinnamon.
4. Let roast for 25 minutes.
5. Stir everything and add the rosemary and sage (I don’t really know if it makes a difference when you add the herbs but this worked for me)
6. Roast for another 25 minutes or until you can pierce the butternut squash with a fork.
7. Pull out of the oven and add the white wine to the roasting pan.
8. Dump everything in a pot over medium heat.
9. Add the stock and cook for at least 25 minutes, smashing the squash with a spoon so that it breaks apart. This soup does get better as it cooks so, if you have the patience, let it simmer on the stove for about an hour.
10. Enjoy!