Sunday, October 4, 2009

Butternut and Pumpkin Soup Recipe






Check out my very first pumpkin we grew and used in this soup (Or is it a watermelon? I thought this was a watermelon Ha! I bought seeds for an "exotic" kind of watermelon this year that was supposed to be an orange-yellow watermelon but when Roger opened this baby up, it was a pumpkin... hey, I didn't say I was a master gardener ya know!):



We vine our melons and squash so it takes less room. In the pictures above, you'll see for a butternut squash and a pumkin on the same trellis, it didn't take much room. Next year we plan to vine everything we can in the dirt and not in pots. The netting you see is from some cotton yarn I crocheted just for my veggies. Hey, it takes the stress off the veggies and they will never fall off the vine this way! Plus, I get to feed my crocheting addiction.

I finally created my own recipe and it's yummy! Perfect for the season as it's getting a tad chillier out lately. I played with these ingredients to the point where I think I like it just as I have it below. I may use celery and an extra apple at some point, but Roger and I like the spices just the way they are.

Here's a picture of the soup in the pot before pureeing it in the blender with the squash in the oven and the onion sauteeing:







We started a garden very late this year, so we didn't get much out of it, but this pumpkin was my baby! Now if you know me, I hate wasting money and food so I had to figure out something to do with this pumpkin that would end up in our tummies and not carved up on our porch! So playing around with a recipe I tried before using butternut squash as a soup, I have a soup now in which the four main ingredients are Pumpkin, Butternut Squash, Granny Smith Apples, and Potatoes. It's very, very bad for my hypoglycemia, so I can only have a little bit at a time, but it's a treat! Here's the recipe I've come up with:

Butternut and Pumpkin Soup


2 Butternut Squash
1 Small Pumpkin
2 Granny Smith Apples (peeled and cut up in 1" pieces)
3 Medium Potatoes (peeled cut up in 1" pieces)
2 Carrots (or 12 baby carrots)
1.5 Medium White Onions (cut into 1/2" rings)
1 Stick Butter (yes, butter, no margarine!)
12 tsp. Chicken Broth Mix (or 10 C chicken broth)
10 C Water
2 tsp. Parsley (dried)
1 tsp. Thyme (dried / powdered)
2 tsp. Marjoram
1 tsp. Cayenne Pepper
2 pkgs. Cream Cheese (optional)

1. Cut the squash and pumkin down the middle lengthwise. Remove fibers and seeds (save seeds to grow next year!). Place in oven at 350 degrees until tender and you can pull the skin off (about 1 to 1.5 hrs.). You can also microwave them for about 10 minutes if you cut them up in smaller pieces.

2. Cut up into small pieces (about 1" pieces): potato, apple, carrot.

3. Place in a large pot: cut up vegetables and the chicken broth mix and water (or the 10 C chicken broth), and all seasonings. Bring to a boil, then simmer until vegetables are almost softened.

4. Slice the onion into rings. Put 1 stick butter and the onion rings into a seperate pan and saute.


5. Add to the simmering pot the squash and pumkin after removing the skins and the onion and butter mixture.

6. When all vegetables are tender in the pot, turn off heat and little by little, puree the soup mixture in a blender, adding the cream cheese if you so desire.

This batch will make about 25 - 30 servings. If you want to freeze some of this soup, do so prior to putting the cream cheese in the soup.

We noticed the cayenne pepper taste a little more with the batch in which we chose not to use the cream cheese. Both are yummy though!
Some things you can add after cooked, pureed, and in your individual bowls:
  • bacon pieces
  • sea salt
  • chunks of cooked veggies like carrots, potatoes, etc.
  • milk or cream to make it creamier and thinner consistency
  • shredded white cheese
ENJOY! If you make this, please post a comment and let me know how you liked it and if you changed anything and the outcome. I'd love to hear what you think! Oh, and if you want to make less soup as this is a very large batch, take out one butternut squash and 1/3 of the rest of the ingredients.

- Tamara Slack

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