Curried Butternut Squash Soup

I love simple pleasures.  Like cooking on a beautiful fall day with the windows open, listening to the newly-fallen leaves turning cartwheels down the driveway.  It's as if every cookbook in my home automatically opens, flips to a page involving soup or squash (or both), and beckons my attention.

This recipe combines butternut squash, apples, and curry into a velvety pureed soup.  The color, the cashmere texture, the scent: they all curtsy to the arriving season. 

My only word of caution is this:  there are 3 tablespoons of curry in the soup.  ("Yum" if you love it, "ack" if you don't.)  So if you serve it to little ones, please go ahead and dress them in orange or wrap them in a bib.  Curry stains.  :)

Begin by melting butter, adding a splash of olive oil, 

an onion, and the curry powder.

Then add the chicken stock, squash, and apples.  

Simmer 'til tender.

 

Strain it.

 

Puree the solids.

 

Velvety gorgeousness.

 

Add the puree back to the pot with some apple juice, 

the reserved liquid, and some goat cheese.

Garnish with grated Granny Smith apple, if desired.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

4-6 servings

3 tablespoons sweet butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, finely diced

3 to 4 teaspoons curry powder 

2 medium-sized butternut squash (about 3 pounds all together)*

2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped

3 cups Chicken Stock

1 cup apple juice

3 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

Salt and pepper to taste

1 shredded unpeeled Granny Smith apple (garnish)

1.  Melt the butter in a stock pot.  Add chopped onions and curry powder.  Cook, covered, over low heat for 25 minutes, or until onions are tender.

2.  Meanwhile, peel the squash (using a regular vegetable peeler...it works best...just be careful).  Scoop out the seeds, and dice the "meat" of the squash.* 

3.  When onions are tender, pour in the stock, add the squash and apples, and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, until squash and apples are very tender, about 25 minutes.

4.  Pour the soup through a stainer, reserving liquid, and transfer the solids to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade.  Add 1 cup of the cooking stock and process until smooth.

5.  Return pureed soup to the pot and add apple juice and about 2 cups of the remaining cooking liquid, until the soup reached the desired consistency.

6.  Add cheese and stir until melted/incorporated.

7.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Serve immediately, garnished with shredded apple if desired.

(*I "cheated" and used two 12-ounce bags of pre-diced squash.  Sure was easy.)

Recipe slightly adapted from The Silver Palate Cookbook:  Delicious Recipes, Menus, Tips, and Lore from Manhattan's Celebrated Gourmet Food Shop