Meatless WEDNESDAY: Curried Acorn Squash Soup

Here is the recipe I had wanted to post for Meatless Monday this week, but due to a currently very busy schedule, here it is today.

Curried Acorn Squash Soup

Ingredients

3 medium or 2 large acorn squash, halved and seeded

1/2 cup chopped onion

3 to 4 teaspoons curry powder

2 tablespoons butter

3 cups vegetable or chicken broth

1 cup half-and-half cream

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oven to 350 degrees and put acorn squash to roast on trays or shallow baking dishes for 35-40 minutes. Once squash is nice and tender- enough so you can slide a fork into it –take out to cool. Meanwhile, sauté the onion and curry powder in butter in a medium or large pot for about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, then scoop the squash out of the rinds and add to pot. Gradually add broth, mixing and mashing the squash as you go. Cook over medium heat for about 15-20 minutes, or until the squash is very soft. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then put into a blender and puree, or blend with an immersion blender until smooth. Stir in the cream, nutmeg, salt and pepper until well mixed and serve.

Cooking and mashing the squash

I added some crumbled apple chips as garnish along with an extra sprinkling of nutmeg. Some other garnish options are:

• Bacon bits
• Swirl of sour cream or plain yogurt
• Fresh chives
• Fresh sweet parsley
• Fresh apple slices

Lovely squash, pre-slicing and mashing and pureeing

These babies are hard to cut! Just look at the marks the knife left on my hand! Use the sharpest and sturdiest one you got when cutting these guys!

Lily playing with Bert and Ernie while I work my kitchen magic

As you can see, I did not have much success in cutting the squash up into perfectly halved slices, so don't worry if you have trouble too; they roasted just fine this way

Yum

This soup was amazing!!! I never had acorn squash before (usually butternut), but it tasted pretty much exactly the same as butternut. Acorn squash is full of vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, and lots of fiber. It also offers antioxidant and anti-inflammatory support andeven may help lower blood sugar. Squash in general is very diverse; you can roast it, sauté it, puree it, candy it, bake it….so many options!

For baby:

Mash up about 1/4 cup of roasted squash with a fork or in a food processor with a few tbspns of breast milk or formula. Voila! Kids and tots should enjoy some roasted squash with butter; sweeten it up with a little agave syrup if they have sweet teeth!

The lovely end result

What Lily had: mashed squash (which I'm sorry to say she did not enjoy) and left over chicken noodle soup

"I'm thirsty, Mama!"

Have a happy Thanksgiving! Let me know if you decide to use this recipe and tell me how it goes!!!