The first evening fire in the wood stove calls for a warming meal from the garden. Tonight it is winter squash soup. This is an easy to make recipe that tastes like a fancy, company dish but is actually simple and quick to cook.
Autumn Soup Made While Answering Email
1 Winter Squash (I used butternut)
1 small onion
olive oil
Chicken or vegetable stock
fresh parsley and chives if available – about two tablespoons each
Cinnamon, cumin, ground chipotle pepper
1 Tablespoon butter
1 Tablespoon sherry
Chopped parsley for garnish
Take one winter squash (I used butternut) and peel and cut it into large pieces.
Saute the onion in a tablespoon or two of olive oil until the onion starts to brown.
Put the squash into the pan and add stock to cover the squash plus a bit more.
Add the chopped parsley and chives plus spices and cook until the squash is very soft or until you’re done answering your emails, which ever comes first. If it seems to watery, cook it down a bit more. If you had a lot of email to wade through, add a bit more stock to replenish the liquid
Add the sherry and butter and pour it all into a food processor to blend until creamy.
Garnish with parsley or, if you want to really impress people, toasted almond slices. (I didn’t happen to have any on hand tonight or I definitely would have gone in that direction.)
Serve as a first or main course, with a garden salad if possible.
The one tablespoon of butter (in the pan on the right) and the sherry (still in the bottle) make this dish taste very rich although it's very low in fat. You can add salt and pepper to taste but the spices, herbs and sherry really make this a very flavorful soup without any added sodium.
Serve small cups as a first course, or larger bowls if this is the entire meal. A satisfying autumn soup? You Can Grow That!
