My food box.
I love it.  It's organic stuff and it gets delivered to my door.  They source as locally as possible which means that things come seasonally.  The 'season' right now is all about squash and roots and the like.  These are things that I don't honestly know that much about.  Truth be told, this is the first squash soup that I've ever made.


In the 70's we weren't really thinking about seasonal food, local food, organic food and all that.  Hmmm, what were we thinking about in the 70's - there's a question.  I didn't grow up with a whole lot of squash aside from acorn.  I don't exactly know why acorn as opposed to the other stuff but hey, we would have acorn squash roasted with butter and sugar inside.  It tasted good.  Aside from that I've had nothing to go on and not a lot of experience eating it elsewhere.  I didn't even know how many kinds of squash there were out there.

So, I've nothing to lose here and everything to gain.  As it goes, this soup is nice.  It's easy.  You can use just about any squash you like, including acorn!  And you can pretty much spice it up any way you like... you know... go with curry, go with chili, go with herb.  It's pretty flexible for a soup.



Roasted Squash Soup
makes about 6 - 7 cups

2 med/small squash (I used delicata)
butter
1 lg leek, sliced thin
2 small carrots, chopped
1 lg stalk of celery, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
5 cups of broth or bouillion mix
2 tbsp thyme
1/4 cup chopped parsley
salt to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Halve the squash.  Scoop out the insides (keep the seeds to roast if you like) and butter the cut side.  Place cut side down on a roasting sheet and roast for about 25 - 30 min or until they're soft and looking roasted.

Remove from oven and cool slightly.
In a large, heated Dutch oven add a hefty scoop of butter.  Add in the leek, carrot and celery and saute for a few minutes - until the leek begins to wilt a bit.  Add in the garlic and saute for another few minutes.   Scoop out the cooked insides of the squash and add to the mixture.  Mix well.  Add in the broth and simmer at low heat.  Add in the herbs and salt just to taste.
Once the soup is looking soft then give it a whiz in the blender (be careful when whizzing hot stuff) or use a hand blender (don't have one anymore ;-( until it's nice and smooth.


I like to serve this with a little sour cream or heavy cream and some chili peppers on top.  But that's me.  You serve it any old way you like....