roasted curried squash soup

I am supposed to be sitting still for five days. I had a rather large area on the back of my head go under the little scalpels of a Mohs surgery. But I’m not lifting anything, and I do have to move around my house some, so soup it was.

I don’t know what it is about fall, but once fall is here, it’s like you have this seasonal clock within you that wants to make soup. This week it’s roasted curried squash soup.

The first steps are making the broth and roasting the squash. Then I let everything cool down and come blend it all together. It’s acorn squash, delicata squash, and butternut squash. I’ve been getting a lot of squash in my veg box from Lancaster and my friend gave me some.

I made my own bone broth once again. I’m not supposed to lift really heavy things so I didn’t do it in my large Instant Pot, which is heavy. I did it the old-school way in my soup pot.

The broth was sweet onions, a big bunch of celery, carrots, bones from a roast chicken, and chicken necks and gizzards. I’ve told my readers before that I save chicken carcasses, plus the necks and gizzards in the freezer for just these occasions.

The squash was roasted on salt and spices in a 400° oven drizzled with olive oil. I used curry powder, salt, pepper, Za’atar. I used the same seasoning preparing the broth only I added a little cumin and a little Shawarma seasoning.

After the broth was ready and squash roasted I let everything cool down to room temperature. I strained the broth, tossing the bones but keeping the carrots and onions and celery. I scooped the roasted squash out of their skins and added to the broth pot along with the broth vegetables. Next I blended everything together with my immersion blender and warmed the soup slowly and incorporated a cup of half and half. It would also work with coconut milk or you could eat it without the additional creamy component.

I will serve tomorrow for dinner.

Bon appétit 😊

roasted squash soup

There are a lot of things I just make. There is no recipe, there’s nothing I look to, it’s just in my head. But today friends asked me to write down how I make my roasted squash soup.

So how did squash soup happen? Two weeks in a row I have gotten squash in my vegetable box. So squash soup popped into my head since it was a comparatively cool day (finally) to be in the kitchen. I decided small fresh sweet potatoes would be added to thicken it up and bone broth made in the InstantPot. Lots of fresh herbs from garden for the broth. When broth is ready and vegetables are cooled from roasting, into another pot it all goes to cook and purée with hand (immersion) blender.

So basically I lined a half sheet pan (18” x 13”) with foil, cut up all my hard sided squashes, baby sweet potatoes, and a couple of chili peppers from the garden, and sprinkled a little olive oil , some tikka masala powder, hawayij spice blend, and salt. I roast everything in a 425° oven for about 40 minutes. Then I turned the oven off and just left the vegetables in there with the door closed until everything cooled down.

Now for the broth part. I keep a Ziploc bag in my freezer where I put the gizzards and necks from whole chickens I buy to roast. I keep those in a bag in the freezer when I want to make broth. Sometimes I even save a chicken carcass after cooking (and freeze it) but that’s not what I used this time. This time I had a bag full of liver, gizzards and chicken necks. Literally like six sets. I used my small InstantPot which makes 3 quarts of broth.

How do I make the broth besides the chicken parts? One onion cut in 4, a couple of carrots cleaned and chunked, salt, rosemary/thyme/sage from the garden. I add water, leaving approximately 2 inches clearance from the top of the InstantPot liner pot. I hit the broth button and let it cook.

After both the vegetables are roasted and the broth is cooked I let everything cool down so I can proceed to the next step. The next step is easy: I take all the squash and scoop out everything from the skin of each piece and put it into a soup pot with the roasted baby sweet potatoes, the carrots used to make the broth, and 6 tablespoons of creamy peanut butter. I give everything a mash with a hand potato masher, and add the strained broth and cook on low for a couple of hours. Then I use the immersion blender and purée everything together. At that point I put it on simmer and let it cook down a little more.

Oh and this soup does not require a dairy component. It’s good just the way it is!

That’s it! Enjoy!