Woznation

Nearly every Sunday I make a soup that phil and I can pull out of the fridge for lunches.  I usually get about 6 servings – so its a good three days of lunch for the both of us.  This curry butternut squash soup makes an appearance every few weeks.  I love to make this soup.  Everything I put in it is so wholesome.  The ingredients arent altered in any way what-so-ever.  I tell phil that I want to make this soup in a cauldron over a fire someday.  ‘Oregon Trail’ style.  Meals like this remind me that food comes from the earth.  Not a package.  And it makes me feel good.

So heres what we’re working with:

Chicken stock (that I made the day before), onion, carrots, celery, sweet potato, white potato, garlic, butternut squash, curry powder and cayenne.  This recipe calls for a lot of peeling and chopping.  But I honestly enjoy it – its a stress reliever for me.  Especially in a dish like this, where we are going to blend it all together – you dont have to worry about the size of the vegetables.  Just a rough chop and dump it in.  So I start with the onion, carrot and celery:

This was 1.5 – 1.75 cup of onion, 1.25 cup of carrot (didnt even peel them), and .5 cup celery.

Let those all saute for 5-7 minutes together with a bit of salt and pepper until soft.  Then throw in some garlic.

This was about 5 small cloves, or 2 tablespoons.  And I loooove that I can rough chop this.  Mincing garlic is a necessary evil in my book.  I dont like to buy extra gadgets (i.e. garlic press) or buy the pre-minced garlic, but I will still complain all night long about how sticky the garlic is and how I hate to chop it.

So throw in the garlic and peel up your potatoes.  Do a rough chop on these and thrown them in the pot as well.  I used about 1.25 cup of white potato and 1.5 cup of sweet potato.  You could add a touch more salt and pepper to flavor these guys up, too.

Now – my ode to butternut squash:

This can be an intimidating and fussy vegetable in its whole form.  But like I said earlier, I kind of love working with these vegetables in their original state.  The skin is much thicker than a potato though, so you will want a peeler that can stand up to it (I definitely broke a flimsy peeler before Mark and Char bought me a heavy-duty peeler that has worked like a charm – Thanks guys!).  Also, as you are peeling and rotating it around, you will notice that the butternut squash is pretty sticky, too.  You’ll definitely want to wash up once you are done.  So here is phil helping me peel:

In the far right picture, notice there are varying degrees of peeling the butternut squash, you’ll want to go all the way down to the thicker orange part, getting off as much white as you can. (twss).

It is awkward to peel the rounded part.  If you’re dealing with a big butternut squash, sometimes I just peel the long part and then use a knife to cut off the peel of the rounded part.  But since phil was helping, he peeled up the whole thing for me.  So here is your final peeled product.

First you can cut out the long part and rough chop it.

The lower rounded part has seeds you will have to deal with.  So chop off the end, trim up any parts that still might have peel on them and cut in half.  Then scoop out the seeds just like you are seeding a pumpkin.

Then chop up the last bit and throw all your butternut squash into the pot.  This particular butternut squash yielded about 6 cups of chopped squash.  About 4 cups from the long part and 2 cups from the seeded round part.

Now add your extra spices.  About 1 teaspoon of curry powder and 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne.

And then add your stock.  I use just enough to cover all the vegetables.  Once we blend the soup – it will make a very smooth soup.  But feel free to add more or less depending on the thickness you like.  I used 5 cups of chicken stock.

Bring everything to a boil.  Then cover it and knock it back to a simmer.  Simmer all together for 20 – 30 minutes until the squash and potatoes are soft enough to blend.

Then I break out my immersion blender.  I dont think they had these on the Oregon Trail, but its a magical invention that allows you to blend the soup in the pot.  If you do not have one of these, you could ladle the soup into a blender or food processor.  Or just have your soup in a more ‘rustic’ style and eat as is.

This is now an excellent time to re-taste and make sure it has enough salt, spice, and curry to your liking.  Add more salt, pepper, curry, cayenne as you please.   We enjoyed a small bowl as soon as it was ready.  But then got 7 decent sized lunch portions!  At least there is something to look forward to on Monday!

Here is an easy copy/paste version of the recipe:

Ingredients:

1.5 – 1.75 cup onion

1.25 cup carrot

.5 cup celery

2 tablespoons garlic

1.25 cup white potato

1.5 cup sweet potato

6 cups butternut squash

1 tsp curry

1/8 tsp cayenne

5 cups chicken stock

Chop onion, carrot, celery and saute in large stock pan with salt and pepper to taste, about 5-6 mins. Peel and dice garlic, add to pot.  Peel and chop white potato, sweet potato, and butternut squash, add to pot.  Add curry powder and cayenne.  Add chicken stock.  Bring to boil, then cover and reduce to simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes and squash are soft.  Blend soup with immersion blender, food processor, or blender.  Taste for additional seasonings.  Serves ~7 bowls.