butternut squash soup

Over the years I’ve made butternut squash soup a few times and I think I do it differently each time. Last night time I roasted the squash first along with some celery, a jalapeno and a couple carrots.

Meanwhile, I caramelized some onions in my soup pot slowly with a little vegetable oil, along with a crazy amount of fresh sage – which I removed once the onions were nice and golden – and some salt and pepper. In the past I’ve used ginger and I’ve used curries, but not this time around. I added some stock, then the roasted squash and veggies. I kept the squash in big chunks. The roasted squash was delightfully sweet and I figured it needed some acidity so I added a splash of some kind of swanky vinegar I found in the pantry.

I just let the whole business simmer away for a while while I whipped up some skillet cornbread. The cornbread was pretty standard except I would have preferred greasing my cast iron skillet with bacon fat, but I was bacon-less at the time so I used butter.  Also I had a little bit of frozen corn in bag in the freezer so I stirred it into my batter.

Just about anytime I see squash soup, it’s pureed within an inch of its life, super smooth, maybe with a bit of cream added at the end. I wanted a more exciting texture than that, so I left it chunky. I guess that’s what some people call country style (while holding their nose). I like the texture of the squash and roasted veggies, though, and I get to choose.

I was worried the single roasted jalapeno wouldn’t be enough heat, so I sprinkled in a wee bit of dried scotch bonnet (we dry our own) to jazz it up and play off the sweet squash and the splash of vinegar.