Yes, I’m posting two back-to-back soup recipes. I love soup! I especially love how filling and warm and comforting a big bowl of soup is on a cold winter day, and I also love how inexpensive (both in dollars and in caloric value) most soups are. They’re also quick and easy to eat when I’m in a hurry, which now that I’m homeschooling a middle schooler and an upper elementary schooler while also working from home full-time and trying to maintian some impact with homesteading, you know, time is not a thing I have much of. And lastly, soup is flavorful, when done right. Good soup has layers of flavor, built-up over a few different steps before being simmered all together into a complex mouthful that is just satisfyingly delicious and delightful to eat.
Today’s soup was a quick and easy concoction on a particularly blustery and cold Fall day here in Central Indiana. I find most squash or sweet potato soups too sweet on my palette, but there’s a squash curry recipe from Deliciously Ella that I absolutely adore. So, I used that curry recipe as inspiration in building the flavors of the soup, and voila! A new favorite squash soup recipe was born. I own the cookbook with this recipe in it, but you can find Deliciously Ella’s Sri Lankan curry recipe right here. The curry recipe is vegan, and you can easily make the soup vegan, as well, by subbing coconut oil or a vegan butter for the butter. We served it with more fussy grilled cheese sandwiches, which I listed in my previous blog post.
Roasted Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup
Yield: 8 adult servings
4 T butter
3 leeks, sliced
2 T olive oil
1 butternut squash, peeled and diced
1 very large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 t cumin
1 t cinnamon
1 t yellow curry powder
1/2 t turmeric
3/4 t chili powder
1 t sea salt
1 1/2 C apple cider
4 C water or vegetable stock
1/2 t more sea salt, to taste
2-3 T pure maple syrup, to taste
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a dutch oven or soup stock pot over medium low heat, melt the butter. Add the sliced leeks, a pinch of sea salt, and then place the lid on the pot. Cook leeks 10-15 minutes, stirring occassionally until they are soft but have no color.
On a sheet pan, combine the squash, sweet potato, red bell pepper, garlic, olive oil, and all the seasonings listed in the recipe up to the apple cider. Toss to combine well, then roasted in the oven for 20-25 minutes.
Add the roasted vegetables to the pot with the leeks with 1 1/2 cups apple cider and about 4 cups of water or stock. Bring the pot up to a low boil for a few minutes. Blend the mixture with an immersion blender until smooth. Add the maple syrup and more sea salt to taste. Serve hot with a garnish of coconut milk (optional).
Hull Family Homestead 