Food Friday: Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

And just like that…it’s fall. Very fall. Not much is for certain these days, but we can always depend on Chef Kevin for seasonal comfort food. This week’s Food Friday dish is rich, creamy and color coordinates perfectly with the fall colors all around us. Most importantly, it will warm the hell out of your soul. Creamy butternut squash soup is the answer.

What you will need:

1 medium sized butternut squash

3-4 carrots peeled

1 baking potato

1 T chopped garlic

Chopped onion

3 cups of chicken or vegetable stock

¼ cup heavy cream

2 T honey

Cayenne pepper or chili flakes

Cinnamon

Salt and pepper

The steps:

Peel the butternut squash, potato and carrots. Once peeled, rough cut into pieces. The cut doesn’t have to be precise since the ingredients will be pureed later, but you want the pieces to cook mostly evenly.

Chop up the garlic and onion. In a heavy bottom pot, over medium heat, add a couple drops of oil and sauté the garlic and onion. After a minute of stirring with a wooden spoon, add the squash, potato and carrots.

Sauté for another minute and cover with chicken or vegetable stock, in this case around 3 cups. When it comes to a boil, turn the heat down to low and cover.

You want to make sure everything is completely cooked through, which should take about 45 minutes.

After the vegetables are cooked through, puree ingredients with an emersion blender, as seen in the video. If you don’t own an emersion blender, a regular blender will work just fine.

If the vegetables are too thick to puree, add a little more stock or water to get them moving and puree until smooth.

Take a whisk and add your heavy cream to the soup as you stir. Season with salt and pepper, cinnamon, honey and cayenne.

Set the heat to low, and with the lid off, simmer for another 10-15 minutes to allow the flavors to blend. At this point you should have a really nice, full flavored soup. Garnishes pictured include sage oil, toasted cashews and a little leftover charred pork shoulder.

Feel free to run in your own direction with your garnishes!