Diary of an Inconsistent Cook #49: Easy Super Roasted Butternut Squash Soup (#homecooking)

Just look at that picture.

It’s that time of year for the one-pot super stars. I’ve made good butternut squash soup before and even an experiment-gone-great butternut squash soup, but this version had more chutzpah. This, by far, has been the best batch of butternut squash soup I have ever made and I fear I may never be able to duplicate it.
This series is aptly named.

The price to pay for cooking in the trenches and blatantly not using a recipe sometimes is that you many make something brilliant and not ever be able to get it exactly the same ever again.

Are you ready to take risks?

Ingredients:

Two butternut squashes that have been on the counter for a week
One medium-large potato peeled and large diced
Half a bag of baby carrots chopped/diced about the same amount as the potato (because it was a buy one get 2 sale and you are flush with carrots)
2 cloves of garlic (or to your taste. Bonus points of they are sprouting)
4 tablespoons of butter
1/2 quart of milk
chicken broth, stock, or boullion (I was feeling lucky and used a mystery bullion packet of questionable origin)
pinch of curry powder (trust me; just a pinch. It’s ah-may-zing)
salt/pepper

Don’t peel the squash. Cut them in half lengthwise, scoop the seeds, and put in a little pat of butter in the hole (or no butter if that’s your thing). Set your oven to about 375F and roast 30-50 minutes depending on how big your squash is. You want to roast it until it turns a deep orange, smells roasty, and you can pierce it with a fork like buhd-da. While that’s happening you can have coffee, referee your kids, take a shower, or crush some candies. When done set them aside to cool while you prepare the other ingredients.

Saute the onions with the garlic in a cooking pot until they are soft and smell good. Toss in the diced potato (you can use more potato if you want, but you run the risk of making potato soup instead of butternut squash soup), and carrots (they really deepen the color and sweeten the squash). Add the milk to cover (I used about half a quart, but you don’t have to use milk if you don’t want to). Add the same amount of broth or water plus bullion. Add the butter. Salt and pepper to taste. And a pinch of curry powder. I used a cheap McCormick yellow curry powder, but you decide what you want. Just a pinch! Curry is powerful and you just want to enhance the flavor, not make it taste like curry. Scoop out the squash from the skin with a spoon (including that wonderful brown butter) and toss it in. Cook until the potatoes and carrots are soft. When done, puree with a blender (regular blender makes it smoother, stick blender is adequate).

If you are a purist, then you don’t have to do anything but mix the butternut squash with whatever liquid you want and go. It’s your soup!

My kids aren’t soup fans (really I think kids just complain just to practice complaining). But they ate it anyway once I gave them roti bread to dip in it.

What do you think? Best butternut squash soup ev-ah?

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