Car Accidents and Winter Squash Soup

Before I begin my post, I’d like to introduce my blogging buddy Deborah, from Taste and Tell. We got paired up in the Adopt-a-Blogger event and I couldn’t be happier. In the “about me” section of her blog, the first sentence reads “I am not a food snob. I just love to eat and love to cook.” I love that. Her website is full of wonderful recipes, some advanced, some easy, all delicious. I especially love her Shaggy Dog candies and her Tuscan Pasta with Sausage. Check her out!

On Tuesday, I was in a car accident. I was driving on the highway to work when the car in front of mine stopped short. I braked and stopped in time. But before I had time to pat myself on the back for leaving enough space between my car and the car ahead of me, the guy behind slammed into my Honda’s rear end. I got a bit banged up, hurting my hip and taking the ambulance to the hospital, but I’m okay albeit very sore. I’m home and not getting up off the couch, with some nice painkillers to leave me woozy and a box of chocolates. I’m game for watching TV and reading but I don’t think I’ll be doing much more than that for a few days. Luckily, I have a boyfriend who cooks me eggs for breakfast and steak for dinner and I even have a few posts that were sitting on the backburner—including this delicious squash soup.

I made this soup on Sunday afternoon, preparing myself for a week of work lunches. I didn’t make it to a week of work after the accident, though the soup wouldn’t have lasted that long anyway—we ate it up within a two days!

I wanted to make the soup without a recipe, and guesstimating, I figured caramelized onions would give a certain depth to the full-bodied, sweet squashes. The result was just what I wanted. You could taste that the squash was roasted prior to cooking and each of the few flavors added a special note to the soup–the black pepper bit at the sweetened edges of the caramelized onions and squash, the nutmeg added warmth, and the thyme and sage added a wintry, piny component. Whole milk creamed up the dish a little—and I loved it in there—but I’m sure you could make it without to save calories.

I recently broke my blender—burning out the motor pureeing broccoli—and was very upset over it. I’d just begun to obsess over pureed soups and didn’t know how I could survive without a blender until my next paycheck. Then I remembered I had a stick blender! I’d never used it to puree a soup before but had heard about it from others. With a slap to my forehead, exclaiming “Duh!,” I blended the soup with the stick and it was creamy and smoother than any I’ve made with the stand blender. Now I’m thankful that the damn thing broke and will never go back to pureeing a soup any other way. Once I get better, I’m excited to remake all my past soups with the stick blender—if you haven’t used it for a soup yet (though probably you have and I’m the only dull one here!) you have to try it out!

Squash Soup

serves 6-8 as a first course or side dish

Ingredients

• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, cored, and cut up
• 1 medium acorn squash, peeled, cored, and cut up
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, cut in half and sliced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 sprig thyme
• 1 tablespoon fresh sage, finely chopped
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg, or to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

Preheat oven to 350°. Spread squash upon a lightly oiled baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt and a little pepper. Roast in oven for 15-20 minutes, or until beginning to brown.

Meanwhile, sauté onion in a large soup pot with butter over medium heat, until they begin to caramelize. Add in garlic, thyme, and sage. When onions are starting to brown, add in roasted squash and chicken broth, scraping bottom of the pot to mix in the browned pieces. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes of until everything is very tender. Remove thyme.

With a stick blender, or in batches in a stand blender, puree the soup until completely smooth. Add milk and nutmeg and stir. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Serve with sage leaves as a garnish.