Butternut Squash Soup

One of the last remnants of my CSA deliveries were two small butternut squash. Squash are a class of vegetables that I usually have to cook very particularly. Like melons, I'm still getting accustomed the the flavors of many squash. One classically simple way to enjoy some butternut squash is with a soup.


I used a recipe from Gourmet magazine as a base, but made my own alterations depending on what I had available. Instead of cooking some bacon for a source of fat, I used some vegetable oil. I also replaced sweet potato for the carrot and added some goat cheese in at the end for garnish and to increase the creaminess. My favorite part of making this recipe (other than tasting it) was to blend the soup after it was done cooking. Previously, I would have transferred small batches of soup to my blender, taking the chance that the hot soup would try to explode out of the appliance. Now, I have an immersion blender (aka motor boat). I simply placed the hand-held blender into the soup and blend away. No fuss, no muss. The blender makes an amazingly smooth soup in just a few seconds. One taster thought it had cream in it when it is just chicken broth and blended vegetables. All in all, the slightly sweet tones of the soup with some salt from the goat cheese made for a wonderful meal to warm me up while the weather is getting colder.