Photo Credit: Nathan Nelson, via Flikr
I try really hard not to be a food snob. This is because I know that a.) many of our food choices are dependent on our geographical location, b.) many of our food preferences stem from the socioeconomic situation in which we grew up, and c.) food preferences aren’t matters of morality and character. In other words, you aren’t a bad person because you eat mac and cheese from a box. Nor are you lazy, uneducated, or otherwise flawed in some pertinent way.
Having said that, I have to confess that soup is one of the few things I’m a teeny tiny bit snobby about. This might be because soup is the easiest thing in the world to make, and it might be because canned soup is so full of sodium and other preservatives that it very rarely tastes like its actual ingredients. Mostly, it just tastes like salt. (Unless you buy a low-sodium variety, of course. In which case it tastes like nothing, because it’s the regular soup without salt added, and the regular soup was formulated with that salt in mind.)
Many people are under the impression that homemade soup has to be food for a crowd. I’m here to tell you that one of the wonderful things about making soup is that you can very easily make enough for just two people–it’s simply a question of reducing the quantities of all your ingredients. There are recipes that don’t work as well when they’re halved or quartered, but soup is incredibly forgiving. You can also increase certain ingredients and decrease others, to suit your own tastes. It’s very hard to mess up with soup. And it’s really easy to make soup gluten-free, if that’s a concern. (I’m all for anything that allows me to use “easy” and “gluten-free” in the same sentence.)
This recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash Soup makes about three cups (or two large bowls), which is the perfect amount for two people. I served the soup with gouda and Granny Smith apple grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner one night last week, the perfect compliment to the earthy flavors of the squash and onions. You can save yourself some time by buying pre-cut squash cubes at your local grocery store–a whole butternut squash will yield far more than you need, although squash freezes well until the next time you’re in the mood for it. Just toss the extra cubes in a freezer bag and tuck them away for later.
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup for Two
2 cups butternut squash, cubed
1/2 a sweet onion (like Vidalia), cut into small chunks
Olive oil
Salt and pepepr
A few sprigs of fresh rosemary*
1 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup milk
1 T. maple syrup
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper
* Optional, if you have it on hand. A teaspoon of dried rosemary works, too.
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Toss the squash an onions with a small amount of olive oil, just until the pieces are coated. Spread the squash and onion pieces on a foil-lined cookie sheet. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, then lay the rosemary sprigs on top of the vegetables. (If you’re using dried rosemary, sprinkle it on with the salt and pepper.) Roast for about 20-25 minutes, until the squash is very tender.
Remove the rosemary sprigs and transfer the roasted vegetable to a large saucepan. Add the chicken stock and use an immersion blender to puree the vegetables until smooth. (If you don’t have an immersion blender, transfer the roasted vegetables to a regular blender and puree them with the chicken stock; pour the puree into a saucepan. You may need to do this in batches, depending on the size of your blender.) Add the milk, maple syrup, nutmeg and red pepper. Heat the soup through, but do not let it come to a boil after you’ve added the milk.
This recipe makes about 3 cups or 2 bowls of soup. One cup of soup, plus a grilled cheese sandwich, makes a very filling meal.
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