After our visit to Glen Eyrie's Madrigal dinner and tasting the most amazing butternut squash soup, I had been wanting to try my hand at it. This is not the best recipe I found, but the one that I already had the ingredients for.
I also scored and got butternut squash a few weeks ago on sale at Albertsons.
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
(courtesy of GMA's website)
Ingredients
-2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks (about 1 medium to large squash)
- 4 cups rich chicken stock, or other stock
- 1 1/4 cups sour cream, creme fraiche, or heavy cream (I used sour cream since it was on hand)
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, or to taste (I didn't have any, so I threw in a pinch of chili powder)
- about 1 tablespoon sugar (optional)
- several chives, cut into 1 inch pieces
Directions
1. combine squash and stock in a saucepan and bring to boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for about 20 minutes or until the squash is very tender
2. Cool a bit for safety's sake, then puree the mixture in a blender. (You may prepare the recipe in advance up to this point, refrigerate in a covered container for up to 2 days)
3. Return the puree to the saucepan and turn the heat to medium-low. Stir in the sour cream/creme fraiche/cream, butter, salt and pepper to taste, and cayenne. Cook, stirring, heating through (do not boil), then taste and add sugar and more seasoning if necessary. Keep warm on low heat.
4. Serve the soup with a few cooked shrimp or mushrooms if you like, and chives.
- I used sour cream and it was a bit tart, I will use cream next time I think.
- reheating on medium to medium low took a while, but it depends on how long you let it cool before pureeing.
- overall it was a hit, very filling. less veggies and more cream that I would have liked, but maybe I'll try one with a little more seasoning and a little less cream next time
To add something to the soup, I googled roasted chicken breast and this is what I decided one:
Lemon Roasted Chicken Breast
Ingredients:
-4-6 chicken breasts
- 2 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp seasoning salt
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 lemons/juice of 2 lemons
- 2 Tbs olive oil
Directions:
-preheat oven the 350 degrees
-combine the seasonings and set aside
- rub chicken breasts well with olive oil and lemon juice, and then sprinkle both sides with the seasoning mix. Place in a 9X13" baking dish, bake for about 30min.
-they ended up moist, but a little lacking on flavor all the way through, but a little fresh lemon juice on the plate to dip the breast in, made it all right
-next time I might infuse some more lemon juice and seasonings inside the breast somehow to make it more flavorful all the way through
Overall a pretty delicious dinner. One more step to becoming a great cook :]
