Butternut Soup: Recipe
October 8, 2006 at 1:33 PM
by Ashleigh
Butternut Soup
This is one of my all-time favourite soups. I loved it in South Africa, loved it more in England and I love it especially in Holland.
Butternut squash used to be a bit of a rarity here in Holland and wasn't often seen in the supermarket. I bought it once or twice when I saw it but the specimens were always a little undersized, especially compared to South African butternuts.
Then, a couple of weeks ago I spotted a magnificently large butternut in the natuurwinkel and hurriedly purchased it before anyone else could!
It's been waiting patiently for a grey and rainy day (difficult in the hottest September in 300 years!), but today was a perfect rainy autumn day, and so the butternut was transformed into butternut soup.
I adapted my recipe (based on a recipe by Annette Kessler in her 'Learn to Cook' book) for use in the pressure cooker, but I've included pressure and non-pressure cooker instructions. Bon appetit!
Butternut Soup
Serves 4 - 6 as a main meal, more as a starter
60 ml (4 tbsp) butter or liquid margarine
1 kg butternut squash, peeled, seeds cleaned out, cut into chunks
2 large potatoes, peeled and diced
1 large onion, peeled and diced (I used a red onion)
2 medium leeks, cleaned, peeled and sliced
salt and milled black pepper
freshly grated nutmeg
500 ml (2 cups) boiling vegetable stock
250 ml (1 cup) milk
60 ml (4 tbsp) cream
- Heat the butter in a large heavy-based pan (or in your pressure cooker) unti it bubbles. Add the vegetables.
- Stiry-fry for about 5 minutes, add the salt and pepper,the nutmeg and the vegetable stock, then cover and cook gently over a low heat until the vegetables are very soft and tender. This will take about 35 minutes in a conventional pan. For the pressure cooker, stir fry the vegetables, add the hot stock and seasonings, cover the pot and bring up to pressure. Reduce heat and cook for ten minutes at pressure.
- Remove the pan from the heat. If using the pressure cooker reduce pressure under a cold running tap.
- Using a hand blender, process until smooth. You can also transfer your soup to a food processor for this step.
- Add the milk and process a little bit more. If you used the conventional method to cook your vegetables you might want to add another cup of milk to reach the desired consistency. The pressure cooker loses little liquid, so most of the 2 cups of stock are retained.
- Drizzle a tablespoon of cream over the back of a spoon into each bowl of soup just before serving.
- If serving the soup chilled, refrigerate it for a few hours before serving.
Note: If you have to wait to serve the soup, reheat it gently over low heat.
I also like to serve this soup with grated Parmesan cheese sprinkled over just before serving. Finely chopped celery leaves, coriander or parsley also make a pretty garnish. If you have a favourite vegetable you can add that too - parsnips make a nice addition, so do turnips and carrots. You could use rice in place of the potato for thickening.
And finally, a good resource to see what vegetables are currently in season in the northern hemisphere is Think Vegetables. We're so used to the same vegetables being available year round that it's hard to remember what's in season. Resources like this one really help!
Comments
I am certainly trying this soon! It looks so good.
Here is how I'm going to modify it a bit to cut out fat (because I'm obsessed and American and eat too much):
1. I am going to use only half the margarine and substitute sugar free applesauce for the other
2. No cream, but fat free sour cream instead on top.
I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for sharing this great Fall recipe!
Oh yum, Ash! Someone made me utternut Squash soup once, but she definitely didn't use this recipe, that's for sure!
Ok, the quest for butternut squash started today! I think I'll try the moroccan market stall.. Do you think the various squash/pumpkins differ in flavour much?
Imagine, my first time to visit your site, but i am definately trying this tonight. I will come back to you tomorrow for a comment.
Heel lekker .
Bedankt .
Smullen !!!
I drooled on my keyboard.
October 8, 2006 11:07 PM