A bumper butternut crop!
I love butternut squash. Our three little squash vines put out a moderately respectable quantity of fruit, the first part of which we enjoyed this week.
My favorite thing to do with butternut squash is to make cream of squash soup out of it. I loosely adapted my recipe from the above book, about which I regularly rave on this blog.
Here's my version, with its focus on cheap, cheap eats:
Plug-in Soup, serves four1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic or
1 tbl minced ginger, depending on the veggie
2 tbl oil.
Sautee the above until the onion is softened. Then add:
4 cups broth, any kind (canned, homemade, beef, chicken, veggie)
1 lb any starchy or semi-starchy veggie, or a combination, roughly chopped: potatoes, cauliflower, turnips, rutabaga, peas, broccoli, asparagus, sweet potato, butternut squash, pumpkin (canned works, but only as part of a combo), or corn. Frozen is fine for any of these.
Add two tablespoons dry rice or 1/4 c cooked rice if you like a thicker soup and you're not already using a pretty starchy veggie, like potato or sweet potato.
Add a little chopped tomato if you like, esp. if you're using one of the red/orange veggies.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer about 20 minutes--until everything is soft enough to puree.
Puree (immersion blender is easiest, but a regular blender works fine).
Add
a cup of milk (anything from skim milk to light cream, but if you use skim, definitely add the rice). Heat through.
You can freeze this soup without the milk. Just add the milk when reheating it.
Ginger goes really well with the orange veggies; garlic for all the rest. Nutmeg is also a nice touch with the ginger; a sprinkle of thyme goes nicely when you're using the garlic. Mint goes *really* nicely with the peas. Substitute coconut milk for the milk with any of the orange veggies.
Plug in what's on sale and what's in season. Squashes are cheap in the fall and winter; asparagus is never cheap, but it's cheapest in the spring; turnips, broccoli, cauliflower are cheapest in the fall and spring; potatoes are cheap year-round.
Red lentils will dissolve in 30 minutes, and can be a nice addition to any of the orange veggies or the corn. Add 1/4 cup for cheap, cheap protein.
If you want to do some combos, but aren't sure what will taste good together, try sticking within a color family, or one color plus white. So, carrots, pumpkin, and sweet potato would go nicely; or potato and broccoli; or cauliflower, peas, and asparagus. Peas and carrots go together like, well, you know. But the color looks off. (Don't ask me how I know, or whom I was having over for dinner when I found out.)
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