Butternut Squash Soup
For those of you that couldn’t follow along with Episode 1, here is the butternut squash soup recipe in its entirety. You’ll notice that I left out the step about dropping a pot of hot curry squash broth on the floor, it tended to make the cook a little bitter!
Ingredients:
- 1 butternut squash
- 1 onion
- 2 tbl butter
- 4 tbl heavy cream
- 2-3 strips of bacon
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tbl curry powder
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- 1-2 cups chicken broth
- Fresh parsley or chives (optional for garnish)
Preparation Instructions:
- Peel the squash and cut into large cubes. Save the goop and seeds.
- Cut the onion in half and peel.
- In a large stockpot melt the butter and over medium heat saute the onion and squash guts until they start to carmelize.
- In a separate pan, slowly cook the bacon until crispy. Drain onto paper towel and dice when cool.
- Raise heat to high on squash goop while adding a few cups of water, cayenne and curry. Don’t worry if its too strong, you wind up using very little of this broth.
- Drop in a steamer basket with the diced squash on top and cover for 20 minutes or until the squash is soft.
- Blend squash with some of the strained steaming liquid until very smooth (but a bit thick). Keep tasting the puree and balance out the spiciness with some chicken broth (or add more of the spicy liquid if too weak).
- Drain and reserve some of the remaining liquid and goop in order to free up the pot to reheat puree. You may need a little extra chicken or squash broth to loosen up the puree.
- Add cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.
- Ladle into bowl, swirl in a tablespoon of heavy cream and place a small pile of bacon in the middle.
- Sprinkle some green stuff on top to finish it off.
