Butternut, Butternut

It's butternut squash season, so my challenge is to come up with different and tasty recipes using butternut squash.  And, by "come up with", I mean, search the internet and find recipes that sound good; not make them up myself.  I am no good at making up recipes.

I found this Butternut Bisque recipe on Martha Stewart's website and it's pretty good.  I doubled it so I could freeze some.

Ingredients:

3 Tbs. butter

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, sliced

1/2 tsp. dried thyme

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional)

coarse salt

1 large butternut squash (about 4 lbs.), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes

15 ounces chicken broth (or one can)

1 cup half-and-half

1 Tbs. fresh lemon juice

Sour cream, for serving

Cooking with butternut squash is pretty labor intensive.  Usually, they have to be peeled, seeded and chopped.  No fun.  Especially if you have sore thumbs left over from milking season.  

So, get busy and peel, seed, and cube those butternut.  I think I used three squash for this recipe.  I weighed them out got eight pounds.

Here's my chopped onion and garlic.  I went ahead and added the thyme, cinnamon, and cayenne to this.

In a large saucepan, heat butter over medium.

  Add the onion mix.  Season with salt, and cook, stirring occasionally until onion is softened, 5-7 minutes.

Add squash, broth, half and half, and three cups of water.  Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, and cook until squash is tender, about 20 minutes.

Working in baqtches, puree in a blender until smooth.  Stir in lemon juice.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream if desired.

I doubled the recipe and it made about 16 cups.  I froze 12 cups for later.

It's a pretty thick soup, and even thicker after it sits in the refrigerator for a while - almost like a runny mashed potato.  When I served it a few days after making it, I added some chicken broth to it to make it more soup like.

It's very tasty and you can change up the flavor by replacing the cinnamon with chili powder or other spices that you might like.  I think this might be good with curry in it.