Dear God it's Cold Out

Since it's starting to get cold as balls out (especially today in DC), I felt like I should start things off with something seasonal. Obviously a winter soup was what I decided on and I chose this AMAZING Butternut Squash soup recipe. I thought it would be nice to have a nice seasonal soup that utilizes seasonal produce... and seasonal produce is usually pretty cheap. So this recipe comes from this restaurant in Chapel Hill, North Carolina called Weathervane. Weathervane is part of a speciality foods store called A Southern Season and their food is awesome. I was bored one night and went to their website because I wanted to check out their menu and see if maybe I could find something that could lead me to making this soup. Amazingly enough, Weathervane's website has a "recipe" section and it only had 1 recipe on it... THE EPIC SOUP! Of course as soon as I got back home to DC I tested this bad boy out and made little to no adjustments. So let's dive into this...

Start out by chopping 4 cups of butternut squash (should equal out to 1 top half of the squash) and 3 cups of sweet potatoes (should equal out to about 1 and half sweet potatoes) into a cubed dice. After all that chopping, dump it into a medium sized pot (min. 4qt pot) with 2 1/2 cups of veggie stock.

Bring this to a boil and let it boil for about 15-20minutes. Don't forget to stir it a few times during this so it all boils out evenly. You should reach a point where the squash/sweet potatoes are fork tender... aka this:

After everything in the pot is pretty soft (soft enough that you could probably mash it up with the back of a spoon), transfer everything in the pot to either a food processor or a blender and puree the mixture. If you're fancy like me you can use a handheld immersion blender.

Take your time with this step. You can't over puree it but you can under puree it and you'll end up with a random big chuck of squash in your soup. This soup is suppose to be very pureed so run with that. You should get to about this consistence...

After everything is all pureed, add cream, apple cider, maple syrup (use real maple syrup, you actually can tell the difference), and cinnamon to the puree. Whisk it all together until its all mixed thoroughly and it should look like this...

So your Weathervane Butternut Squash soup is ready to go. However, there is an optional garnish that you can make... I highly recommend making it. The garnish is sour cream, cream, sugar and cinnamon all mixed together and dollop on top of the soup.

So I hope you all love this soup like I do! Its perfect for the season and quicker to make than it was to write this post. If anyone visits Chapel Hill, I highly recommend you to eat at Weathervane! Stay warm, I know I'll try.


Weathervane's Butternut Squash Soup

Soup
Ingredients:

4 cups Butternut Squash (about 2 large), peeled, seeded and cubed

3 cups Sweet Potatoes, peeled and cubed

2 ½ cups Vegetable Stock

1 ½ tablespoons Apple Cider

1/3 cup Heavy Cream

2 tablespoons Maple Syrup

½ teaspoon Cinnamon

Instructions:

In a medium pot over medium-high heat, boil vegetable stock, butternut squash and sweet potatoes. Cook until all pieces are fork tender, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and puree with an immersion blender or food processor/blender until smooth. Add the apple cider, heavy cream, maple syrup and cinnamon. Mix until everything is combined thoroughly. Serve immediately. 

Garnish

Ingredients:

½ cup Sour Cream

1 tablespoon Heavy Cream

2 teaspoons Sugar

¼ teaspoon Cinnamon

Instructions:

Mix together sour cream, cinnamon and sugar. Add heavy cream, about 1 tablespoon, or until the desired consistency is reached.

Cooking Tips:

~When you are cutting up a butternut squash, it is easier (and safer) to just cut it in half at the section between the bottom bulb part and the long top part. After that peel it and then slice up the top part and then dice those slices up or seed the bottom bulb part and go after that.

~When making soup, do all of your chopping before you start cooking. Sometimes people just chop when they need it and that can really create anxiety and you could accidentally burn things and eff it all up. 

~When you are packing up leftover soup, wait until the soup reaches room temperature before putting it in the fridge. This is more important when you have a soup with meat in it because that meat will get tough and gross but its just a good thing to do to keep your soup at its best quality. 

Peace out,

Liz