Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Bacon

Winter squashes are one of the things I love about this season. Their flavor, color, texture is so "fall-like" and comforting. And they are delicious too! We recently used a squash variety called "Fairy Tale squash" for my mom's pumpkin noodle soup.

And just the other day, I made butternut squash soup. I have to say, this butternut squash soup is EXTRA special simply because we grew the squash ourselves. And it's EXTRA, EXTRA special because it was the ONLY butternut we got from that whole vine. Sigh...I'm not meant to grow anything besides tomatoes.

Our One and Only Butternut Squash

But for the only one that we got, it was pretty huge and pretty tasty. I roasted that sucker for an hour in my oven and then scooped out the very orangey flesh into my pot for this soup. We got so much soup that we ended up eating it for 3 days!

I adapted the recipe for this soup from Epicurious (the recipe originally called for Kabocha squash--which we've also done and is just as delicious). We tweaked it a little by adding ginger which gives it more warmth which I really like.

What I like about this recipe (besides the yumminess) is that it's very easy. Most of the work is just waiting for the squash to roast in the oven and then cool enough to work with. The rest of the ingredients are easy to prep and quite fast if you have a stick/immersion blender.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

recipe adapted from Gourmet Magazine, October 2000 Issue

Ingredients

1 butternut squash, halved and seeded
1/4 lb bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced (I used 3--can never use too much garlic)
1 inch ginger, peeled and rough chopped
3 1/2 cups chicken broth (about two cans)
3 1/2 cups water
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
A little heavy cream for stirring in at the table (optional)

Method
1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Drizzle liberally some olive oil over the squash halves and season with kosher salt.

Butternut Squash Halves

3. Place squash halves on a sheet pan (easier if you use some aluminum foil to cover the pan and then brush with oil), cut side down in the middle of the oven, and roast for an hour. Cool and then scrape flesh from skin.
4. In a 4-quart heavy pot, throw in the bacon and cook it till brown and crisp. Transfer bacon onto paper towel to drain.
5. Add onion to bacon fat in the pot, and stir until the onion has softened. If you need to, add more oil.
6. Add garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.

Cooking Garlic, Ginger and Onions in Bacon Fat

7. Add squash, chicken broth and water and simmer for 20 minutes to blend flavors.

Simmering Roasted Butternut Squash for Soup

8. Using a stick/immersion blender, blend the soup till it is smooth. Add more water to thin it out if it's too thick.

Blending Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

9. Stir in vinegar, salt and pepper to taste.
10. Ladle into bowls and drop in some crispy bacon and drizzle with some cream.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Bacon and Cream

Enjoy!

Cheers, Annie

Hungry for more soups? Click Below:

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