Butternut Squash Apple Soup

As mentioned in our previous post, autumn offers many opportunities to cook with fun, seasonal items. Pumpkin is a favorite, but equally delicious and versatile is butternut squash.  Honestly, there are so many wonderful recipes using butternut squash!  Last night, I (Kari) made a delicious (if I do say so myself) pot of Butternut Squash and Apple Soup.  I started with this recipe from Williams-Sonoma as the inspiration, but I very quickly revised the recipe to my own liking.  I gravitated towards the original recipe because it was a slow-cooker recipe.  Any time I can use my crockpot, I'm a happy camper.  The reason I veered from the Williams-Sonoma recipe was because a major ingredient in the recipe is Williams-Sonoma's Butternut Squash Puree, which costs $25.00 for two jars, both of which you'd need for this recipe.  I don't really like the idea of having to run to W.S. for two jars of their puree every time I'd like to make this soup.  That's where my own version of the recipe started...


The following is the recipe that I used.  The resulting soup was uh-mazing.  Not really because of anything I did, either.  The fact is, the ingredients are fresh and simple so the soup ends up yummy.  An added bonus?  Having this concoction warming up in the crock pot for the afternoon will fill your home with the most delicious, amazing smell---if you could bottle the aroma of autumn, this would be it. 

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs. unsalted butter
• 2 yellow onion, chopped or sliced (whatever strikes your fancy)
• 4 cups butternut squash puree (see instructions below for how I made my own)
• 2-3 Granny Smith apples, cored and chopped (I left the peels on---it worked out deliciously this way!)
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 3 small bay leaves
• 3 tsp. salt, plus more, to taste
• 1 cup crème fraîche
• 1/2 tsp. ground coriander (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. grated peeled fresh ginger (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. sage (optional)

Directions:

To make the butternut squash puree, you will need two large butternut squash. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Slice each squash in half longwise. Scoop out seeds and discard. Brush cut flesh of each squash half with either butter or olive oil (your choice) and dust with cinnamon. Place each half facedown (flesh down) on a cookie sheet (if you have a Silpat mat, use this on top of your cookie sheet---your cleanup will be a breeze). Put the squash in the oven for 30 minutes. To see if the squash is ready, poke each piece with a fork at its thickest part. The fork should easily slide in and out. If the squash is not ready, leave in oven for more minutes, checking periodically until flesh is soft. Remove from oven and scoop flesh into a bowl. (Here's where it gets creative...) William-Sonoma's butternut squash puree is a little on the sweet side, so to make your own puree, add a 1/4 cup brown sugar and a couple tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice. If you don't have pumpkin pie spice, don't worry. Throw in a couple teaspoons of cinnamon and nutmeg. This is all to taste, by the way, and dependent on how big your butternut squash were to begin with. Basically, you want the puree to be slightly sweet, but not too sweet. Remember, it's going to mix with a lot of other fabulous ingredients in the soup so the puree does not need to be dessert. Actually, I'd add in the brown sugar slowly and carefully---you might not even need a whole 1/4 cup. The apples will add to the sweetness in the final dish, so you don't need too much sweetness in the puree---just a hint.


Okay, onto the rest of the soup:  In a sauté pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook until soft, about 10 minutes. Transfer the onion to a slow cooker. Add the squash puree, apple, stock, bay leaves and the 3 tsp. salt to the slow cooker and stir to combine. Cover and cook on low for 3 hours (or more, depending on how long it takes for the apples to get soft).

Remove the bay leaves and discard. Add the crème fraîche. Working in batches, use a ladle to remove half of the soup and puree in a blender until smooth. Add back into crock pot.  Leave half of the soup with chunks of apple and onion (which both should be soft at this point).  Stir in the coriander and ginger. Ladle the soup into warmed soup bowls and serve.

I am not sure how many servings this ends up making, but it's a lot.  :)  I like to make a bigger-than-necessary batch of soup in the crockpot and then freeze half so I can heat it up for a quick dinner down the road.  Just be warned, you'll be making a lot of this.  :)

 A couple of suggestions:
Serve this with a slice of crusty bread rubbed with olive oil, grilled lightly, and sprinkled with a scant amount of sea salt---sooooo good!  This soup is hearty enough to stand alone as a meal, but if you married a man who likes a bit of meat with dinner (as mine often does), I recommend grilling a couple chicken apple sausages and serving them alongside this dish.  The flavors go delightfully well together. And, if you really want to up the ante, serve a rich Chardonnay with this.  You won't be sorry.  :)


Also, this is one of those recipes that I don't think you can mess up.  Feel free to make substitutions---you'll probably improve on what I did!  :)