Butternut Squash Soup

This is the season to organize the soup recipes. Cooler weather means soup time is back in our house. There is something that is more than warming provided by a bowl of a special soup on a crisp Autumn day. Soup is a special comfort food and our Spicy Butternut Squash Soup fills the need to meet the cooler weather with a seasonal answer. This seasonal special soup was our cooking activity last Saturday and the result was as good as the memory.

Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:
2 ½ Lb. butternut squash
2 tablespoons butter
2 onions thinly sliced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. chili powder
3 ¾ cups chicken broth
2/3 cup light cream or half & half
salt & pepper to taste
Chopped cilantro for garnish

Preparation:
Step 1. Peel squash with vegetable peeler
Step 2. Cut into thick slices and then cube
Step 3. Remove seeds which you will find in the thicker part of the squash
Step 4. Melt butter in pot and add then sauté onions, celery and garlic for 5 minutes
Step 5. Add squash and spices and cook for 5 minutes longer
Step 6. Add chicken broth, cover pot, cook over medium heat till squash is tender(15-20 minutes)
Step 7. Cool slightly then puree in batches in blender or food processor
Step 8. Return to pot, stir in cream & heat to serving temperature
When serving garnish with chopped cilantro. The cilantro adds more than color!

Afterthoughts: When we were making this we didn’t bring out the food processor we simply used a blender. When blending I tried to remember when we bought the blender I was using. It was too long ago to remember but it has served us well for many , many years. If you are thinking about getting a new blender the Waring surely needs consideration. Few people remember Fred Waring’s early TV appearances with his Choral group the Pennsylvanians but the blenders invented by Frederich Jacob Osius, financed by Waring and named the Waring Blendor(with an O) are still blending well.

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