Roasted Veggie Soup featuring the Butternut Squash
Ingredients:
1 large Butternut squash, cut in half lengthwise, and gutted of seeds & stringy bits
1 medium Acorn squash, prepped the same as above
1 red bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper, washed and left whole
1 head of garlic, top cut off, loose 'papers' removed
1-2 Tbsp butter or oil [I used butter because I'm currently out of oil... and I like butter] :-)
1/2 large onion, chopped finely
1 large leek, white & light green part sliced, washed in sieve, then chopped finely
3 stalks of celery, chopped finely
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped finely
6-8 grinds on the salt grinder (~1 tsp maybe?), to taste
4-6 grinds on the pepper grinder (~1/2 tsp maybe?), to taste
6 cups vegetable broth (I used bouillon cubes)
1/2 to 1 cup heavy cream (alternate: milk or none, if you're counting calories)
6-10 slices of your favourite bacon, cooked to crispy, and drained on paper towel, chopped (for "garnish")
Directions:
Arrange oven racks on the top and bottom spaces. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. On a large pan with sides (I use a jelly roll pan), place squashes, cut side down, poke skin with fork all over, particularly in thicker spots. Add water to pan to make it come about 1/8" around the squashes. Place the garlic head, cut side up, in a small oven-safe bowl or dish and pour oil or put softened butter over the garlic If you have room on your pan, place it on your pan, if not, put it on a different rack in the oven. Place pan on bottom rack. Place bell peppers in a separate dish/ pan, and put on the top rack. (My oven configuration was a jelly roll pan with squashes/ water with a small bowl in the corner of the pan with the garlic, on the bottom rack and a medium sized square casserole dish with the bell peppers (no lid) on the top rack. You could also have the squashes on the bottom, and two small dishes on the top -- one with garlic and oil/ butter, the other with peppers.)
Roast everything for about 20-30 minutes, rotating the peppers at least once so that the skin gets 'singed' all around, until the squashes are tender and the peppers are squishy. My acorn squashes were done before the butternut squashes.
Meanwhile, add several Tbsp butter or oil to a large, heavy-bottomed soup pan over medium heat. Add onion, leeks, celery, and carrots, and saute until everything is very tender, 10-15 minutes. Season with salt & pepper. Add 1-2 cups of broth (enough to keep stuff from sticking to the pan), and mix well. Reduce heat and cover while prepping roasted veggies.
Roasted veggie prep: remove squashes to a large plate/ cutting board cut side up, to cool slightly (easier to handle). Flip head of garlic over to re-absorb the oil back into the garlic cloves, just let it sit upside down in the bowl for a while. Place the peppers on a large piece of foil, and wrap the edges up onto themselves to 'tent' it and set aside for a while. When squashes can be handled, spoon the flesh out of the skin (or cut the skin off the flesh, whichever is easiest), and put into the soup pan. Once the garlic has re-absorbed the oil, and is cool enough to handle, squeeze the cloves out of the papers, and put into soup pan, along with any remaining oil/ butter in bowl. Open 'pepper tent' and pull the peppers apart -- the stem/ seeds should come right off in your hand, and the skin should fall off with little effort. Rough chop the pepper flesh and put into soup pan, along with any juices that are left in the foil/ cutting board. Increase heat back to medium, mix everything up, and add enough broth to make it slightly soupy. Blend with immersion blender (or transfer to blender in batches, but be very careful as the steam can burn!) until evenly pureed. Add the rest of the broth and mix well (or continue to blend with immersion blender). Taste for seasoning, add salt & pepper to taste. Reduce heat to low. Slowly pour in cream, and mix well. Taste again, and re-season if necessary. Cook until just heated, do not boil.
Cook & chop your bacon, if you haven't already. :-) Garnish soup with a hearty 'grab' of bacon.
