This squash soup, with its bright orange colour and warming ginger is my “chicken” soup that I eat when I have a cold or the flu. Or when I’m looking for comfort food to warm me on a cold day.
This is a “Kristen” recipe – very imprecise but also very flexible. It takes some time with all the chopping. I recommend making a big batch because it freezes well.
Squash Soup Ingredients
- Vegetable oil (preferably olive oil)
- Member of the allium family (onion, garlic, leek, shallots)
- Ginger (I like about an inch)
- 2 or 3 kinds of orange vegetables like winter squash (my favourite is butternut but any kind will work including pumpkin), carrots, yams, sweet potatoes
- Vegetable stock, chicken stock or water (water will make the blandest soup – use as a last resort)
- Orange juice
- Salt or seaweed
- Fresh ground pepper
Squash Soup Directions
- Finely chop the members of the allium family.
- Grate the ginger.
- Peel and chop the orange veggies. Cut squash, yams, and sweet potatoes into ½ to 1 inch pieces. Cut the carrots into coins. Carrots take longer to cook than squash and yams/ sweet potatoes are in the middle. So, you will want the carrot pieces smaller than the squash pieces and the yam/ sweet potato pieces middle in size.
- In a large, heavy bottomed pot, add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pot. Heat it over low-medium heat. Add the allium family members and cook until onions/ shallots are translucent or the leeks have softened.
- Add the ginger and orange vegetables and sauté for a few minutes, stirring frequently.
- Add enough stock to just cover the veggies. Add seaweed or salt. Cover with a lid, turn up the heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-high and boil gently until the orange veggies are soft, stirring periodically. Add stock/ water while cooking, if needed.
- Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.
- Using a blender or hand-held mixer, puree the soup, adding orange juice one splash at a time until you reach your desired consistency and flavour.
- Return to the pot and re-heat. Serve hot, topped with a sprinkling of freshly ground pepper.
- Enjoy!
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