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It’s rare I have nothing to say, but there you have it: my loves of both soup and the squash-apple combo are already well documented. I could go on and on to reiterate that soup is a great way to warm yourself up, to sneak in a load of extra vegetables, and to trick yourself into thinking your meal is incredibly rich when it’s actually quite light. And I could wax poetic – again – about how the sweet richness of butternut squash is perfectly balanced by tart, crisp apples.
But I’ve already done both of those things, so the important thing here is to just get straight to the recipe. I promise, this can be your new go-to fancypants soup. And the sneakiness factor is high: by using a slice or two of bread as thickener, I’ve reduced the cream to a quarter of what the original recipe called for while maintaining lusciousness. If you were nuts, you could leave the cream out all together… but 4 tablespoons over what easily makes 6-8 servings of soup is hardly overindulgent.
Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
Adapted vaguely from Bittman
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, roughly chopped
Several leaves fresh sage, chopped, plus more for garnish
A few sprigs fresh thyme
1 average butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 pound Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped (3-4 apples)
1 quart (4 cups) chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
2 slices bread, torn to pieces*
1/4 cup cream
Melt the butter with the oil in a large, heavy-bottomed stock pot over medium heat. Add onion, sage and thyme, and sauté 5 minutes or until onion begins to soften. Add the squash and apples and sweat 5-10 minutes more. Add the stock, wine and torn bread to the pot. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat, partially cover, and simmer until the squash is very soft, about 30 minutes.
Purée the soup in a blender, fishing out and discarding the thyme stalks as you go. Rinse out the pot you used to cook the soup, then return the puréed soup to the pot. Add the cream, then gently bring the soup back to serving temperature over medium-low heat. Serve garnished with fresh sage.**
*I’ve used whole wheat sandwich bread from the store, day-old leftover baguette, previously frozen ciabatta… it all works.
**I just needed to use another set of asterisks.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
