A belated Christmas gift from Will of a new lens means a few random pictures for you as I fiddle around with it.
I don't really know what I'm doing! But Rosie will tell me.
It's a totally new thing for me to spend my snowed-in winter days without children to keep busy with activities — or even teens to talk to! All day, just me … the Chief wanders in now and then for a meal … Habou gets herself to her studio if the roads let her. But really, time is different for me now, that's for sure!
I have much less of a clamor going on. The days are often wide open, especially when commitments are cancelled due to you-know-what. Yet, more than ever, they rush by as I try to accomplish all I need to do! How is that even possible!
I'm trying to clear out some projects, as you know. This one is a chalice veil that I'm supposed to be repairing, as the lovely silk backing had been worn to shreds. Yes, it was originally that hot fuchsia!
It has taken forever to find the right kind of silk and then figure out how to sew it on. Sounds easy (which is why I said yes), turns out to be tricky. Probably another decade and I'll be done.
And then I was cleaning out some more things in my pantry/studio/storage space and came across these calligraphy panels from Deirdre. I think I asked her to write out the prayer to the Holy Spirit for my Atrium class. Poor Deirdre — she's always making or giving me beautiful things and then they get stuffed away (at best) until I “deal.”
Isn't her work beautiful?
And I need to get on some baby caps for the spring rush!
Okay, I promised you soup, so here is some soup.
How about a delicious butternut squash soup with quinoa?
First I'm going to tell you something about getting butternut squash into a form you can manage, without making a dish like this a complete chore.
It has to do with my “cooking for your stash” approach as well as “Save-A-Step” more specifically.
Don't do what the recipes all tell you to do! Don't peel the un-peelable, or try to cut up the un-cuttable. Don't end up with watery substance.
Instead, get your squash (preferably two) when you know you will use the oven for something else. The temperature doesn't matter too much — anything from 300* to 450* will do. Line a baking pan with aluminum foil. Put the squash whole in it. Bake it for a good long time, like an hour, or until it's browning and exuding its sugars.
Take it out and let it cool a bit. Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds, and easily just scoop the flesh away from the skin. (Now wrap up everything that's left in the foil and toss. Easy!)
Now distribute the butternut squash between whatever you are making for this dinner (for instance, buttered, salted, and a little cinnamon, serving up as a lovely side dish for roast chicken) and some containers. Pop the containers in the freezer.
When you are making soup, pull out one or more containers! While you are out at your freezer, maybe get those chunks of ham you squirreled away the last time you had ham, and some chicken or ham broth ditto. Let it all defrost on your counter until you are ready to cook.
This way, this kind of soup will only take you about 40 minutes from start to finish. Don't let recipes turn something simple like soup into a long affair. Soup is meant to be what you make after you've made all the other things!
Butternut Apple Quinoa Soup, Like Mother, Like Daughter
Serves 8
(adjust these amounts according to what you have handy — nothing is set in stone here)
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 stalks celery, chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 Tbsp butter or olive oil
- 2 Tbsp ras el hanout, garam masala, or curry powder, or one Tbsp each cumin and coriander
- 4 Tbsp flour, if you want a thick soup
- 1 quart chicken, ham, or vegetable stock, homemade and stashed in your freezer before you even thought of making this soup
- 2 cups of pureed butternut squash (maybe 1/2 a good-sized squash), prepared as suggested above for maximum efficiency and concentrated, caramelized flavor
- 1 cup, more or less, of ham, chopped into pieces (sausage will work very well also!) if this isn't an abstinence day — but it's fine without
- 1 cup quinoa
- 2 apples, peeled and chopped
- salt
- pepper
Saute your onion, celery, and carrot in the oil or butter for a minute or two. Add the spices and garlic, stirring for a minute, and then the flour. Cook the roux for a few minutes, and then gradually add your stock, whisking to make a thickened broth.
Add the butternut squash and simmer until the carrots are tender, about 15 minutes.
If you like, at this point you can puree the soup with an Immersion Hand Blender*. Don't get it perfectly smooth — just make the vegetables smaller and the squash not stringy.
Now add the ham pieces and quinoa. Add more water if you need it: Think about the soup at the end, and what consistency you want it to be (and also think about how many you want it to serve!). Stir it all up.
Cover the pot and cook for 15 minutes or until the quinoa is soft.
Add the apple pieces and cook for 5 minutes more. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve!
*I like my stick blender for this type of thing. It's far too much trouble to pour hot soup into a blender or food processor — not worth it. Just chop the veggies smaller if you don't have a stick blender. And if you are getting one, don't be tempted to get a cordless one, even though that would seem to be way preferable. In fact, they are not powerful enough. So, cord it is.
Lisa G. says
Oh, this sounds delicious. Thanks!
priest's wife (@byzcathwife) says
It is very true that soup is what we should make when we’ve made everything else….I can’t imagine starting my soup from scratch (meaning- I don’t have any broth waiting for me in the fridge from the previous days)- a question for you and/or readers- how do you (or do you at all) make a creamy or cheesy soup without it separating? A friend dropped off a big container of half and half. We won’t use enough in our coffee before it goes bad!
Lori B says
After you’ve puréed your soup, pour in the cream with the heat off or on low, and stir. Don’t let it over heat or come to a boil- that’s when you’ll have issues with separating.
Josie says
I agree with Lori, I think you can boil heavy cream, but nothing less fatty than that, you have to add it and keep it at a simmer or take it off the heat and add…and with cheese same thing to take it off the heat first. I remember Barefoot Contessa saying something about the type/quality of cheese too when someone asked her why her mac and cheese sauce always separated. I thought ohhh, that is probably why mine always separates:);).
Cristina says
Thank you for the butternut squash tip! The first (and last) time I made a soup with butternut squash my hands had some kind of weird reaction while I peeled it (raw) that made my skin feel strangely dry or like it was covered with dried glue. Naturally I began to overreact and turned to the internet for unsatisfactory answers–am I allergic to that squash? Would the same thing happen to my throat if I ate the soup? Answers: I’m not and it didn’t 🙂
Cooking and scooping sounds much less stressful!
Mrs. B. says
That happens to me, as well. I just thought there must be something glue-y in the squash “oils”, or something like that. I seem to remember even zucchini give me that same feeling. Washing my hands with really hot water solves it for me. But it won’t happen if you peel it after roasting it, as Leila suggests – one more proof that you are not allergic to it, and one more reason to follow her tip 🙂
Melissa Diskin says
I think it’s mostly just the starch in the vegetables. And it’s why they used to wear old gloves (See Anne of GG, et al) to cut up potatoes for seed.
Denise T. says
I really like your suggestions for dealing with the outside of the squash. I have always been wary of dealing with pumpkins and squash when making soup because cutting them up is such a huge chore – although I really love the finished product! I am going to try the squash soup this week. Thank you! I like your hanging birds and Dierdre’s artwork is so lovely!!
Anne-Marie says
“Add more water if you need it: Think about the soup at the end, and what consistency you want it to be (and also think about how many you want it to serve!).”
Several years ago, my daughters gave me a kitchen cloth from Germany that says, “Five were invited, ten have arrived. Pour water in the soup, bid everyone welcome.”
Leila says
Yes, Anne-Marie, I didn’t know that was a plaque-worthy adage but that’s the idea I had in mind 🙂
Lorelei says
I used to make and repair/restore Mass sets like that (pre-babies! My oldest is 5. I do miss sewing!). The trick is to forget pins and hand baste everything. Time consuming, but the only way I found to get a perfect fit on all those slick layers.
Ruth Martin says
Is the quinoa cooked or raw? I couldn’t tell from the recipe.
Woman of the House says
Such gorgeous calligraphy! I’m jealous that you have someone to do these things for you. lol Beautiful!
Anel says
Oh, LOVELY!
If you don’t have a stick blender, a potato masher [hand thingy with wholes] works well also.. used it in the days before I had one..
Mmmm….
Christina A says
Yes! This is how I thicken potato soup (Joy of Cooking), though my friend who first made the recipe for me would add dried mashed potato flakes.
Mrs. B. says
Deirdre sure is talented – I look forward to more pysanki pictures every Easter: I am in awe that anyone could create something like that!
The chalice veil is so beautiful: the silk looks so rich and heavy you can almost feel it through the screen. The hot pink color though is puzzling: for what liturgical season could that be meant? Or is just the gold that matters? I’ve never seen such a color before.
I’m a convert to your save-a-step-and-roast-something-while-the-oven-is-hot method. Now I even feel guilty if I don’t happen to have anything else at hand and turn my oven on for just ONE thing… 🙂
Sully says
never would have thought to put quinoa in soup. this looks great!
Julianne says
I wish I’d read this around 4 o’clock. I had my butternut squash ready and I was wishing for a soup…tomorrow!
Rebecca says
If anyone else is reading from the tropics, I subbed about half a cup of homemade mango-papaya jam for the apples (which don’t grow in Papua New Guinea!) and it was very tasty.
Kaitlin says
Can someone offer advice? I’ve tried roasting my squash in this method twice now, and end up with a huge mess. The first time I had 2 large squash (squashes?) on trays, baked at 350 for at least an hour, and they were mostly done, but had loads of water all over the tray when I cut them open. Then they did not scrape out easily away from the skin. The second time, two squashes, 350 for 2 hours, and I stabbed them about 10 times each, thinking some of the water inside could steam out, and leave me with less of a mess. No dice, in fact they did not completely cook, so now I’m having to do the chunks that weren’t done in the Instant Pot. I should have swapped their places in the oven, so they cooked. But what to do with the watery mess?
Do I perhaps have a different type of squash, and not butternut? Should it matter?
Leila says
I use this method all the time with butternut squash, according to how I described it, so I will take another stab at putting it all into words in case there is something I missed.
First, line your pan completely with tin foil, going over the edges so that your mess is contained. It will be a bit watery and messy with the seeds, but the upside is that you are not slicing your arm trying to cut it open and peel it!
Second, perhaps your oven runs a bit low. When I wrote this post, I had a convection oven that ran quite hot. Today with my regular oven I would put the squash in at 400.
Third, when a fork or knife pierces the skin, which has browned, and the juices have started to caramelize, it’s done. This may take a good long time, but I do it when I am using the oven for something else, like baking bread or roasting meat.
Fourth, let the squash cool in the pan, still with the foil, and then cut it open; any liquid is contained. Scoop out the seeds and then you can either scoop out the flesh with the spoon or cut it into more manageable chunks and cut the skin off — it will be soft and not a problem. However, I find that usually my squash has separated from its skin and I just lift it out, leaving the skin behind. I put the seeds and skin in my compost of course!
If it happens that my squash is not completely cooked, I simply go through this process (it does help to let it cool a bit) and return the cut-up pieces to the oven in a baking dish, tossed with butter, salt, and pepper. It will finish roasting and be a nice side dish when sprinkled with cheese or a bit of cinnamon (or for any recipe calling for squash in chunks rather than puree). If you are making the soup described here, just cut it into small pieces and throw into your soup pot. 20 minutes of cooking should do the trick.
Mine is hardly ever what I would describe as watery, as the whole point is to avoid watery squash, which I find unappealing. So I would say your oven setting should be put higher, even up to 425.
If you want to cut down on oven time, you can cut the squash in half and microwave it for 6-8 minutes (or more — basically get it up to temp and pre-cook a little) and then put it in the oven in your foil-lined pan.
I hope this works for you! It really is a nice way to prepare tasty squash!