triple squash soup

Remember the butternut squash from earlier pictures? Well, I finally got around to doing something with it only after I received another type of squash in my weekly veggie box. This time it was an acorn squash. I started thinking and after the couple days of snow storms (yes it is still snowing here in Alaska), I thought it would be nice to have some warm soup and some bread.

First I had to roast the squash. This is easy, if you haven't done this before, give it a try. It's super easy and is very tasty. This stuff tastes good straight out of the oven.

Cut your squash or squashes? [I have no idea what the plural of squash is...Maybe squash is plural, like moose. Huh, uh, anyway...] Cut your gourds in half length-wise. Scoop out the seeds and gooey stuff. (You can save the seeds if you want to plant some or clean them and roast them too for a crunchy snack) Spray the insides with oil--I used canola in a Misto--and add some sea salt (Get one of these...they are awesome!) Now, place the squash skin side up on a baking sheet that has sides--as they cook, they will render some liquid. Take some cloves of garlic and some thyme and shove them in the scooped out part. As they roast, they will take on the flavors of what ever you put in there. Put them in a 375 degree oven for about an hour or until they are soft and can be removed from the skin easily. After they are cooled scoop out all the flesh. I did all this the night before I made soup.

The day of the soup, I put the squash bits in the blender with some water (feel free to use chicken stock or vegetable stock) to make a puree--add those roasted garlic cloves to the mix if you want. Now, I bet you are wondering where the other squash comes from. Enters a can of pumpkin puree. I would have roasted a pumpkin if I had one. I didn't. A can of pumpkin puree is just as good. DO NOT USE PUMPKIN PIE FILLING. It's not the same, trust me on this one.
Add the pumpkin and squash puree in to a large stock pot. Add 2 cups of water to make it more like soup and less like paste. Heat this up on Medium heat. Add Salt, corriander, cumin, garlic powder and pepper. Add Sriracha if you want to add some heat--I did, I knew Erin was going to come over. Now, add a pint of heavy cream to give your soup a velvety creaminess. (You can omit this if you are watching your weight)


I served this with grilled garlic bread. It was nice and warm and filling. Aaron ate 2 bowls and I'm not even sure if he knew this was good for him.