Back to Soup

I'm not one to make soup in the summer. It just doesn't seem right somehow - summer is for fresh salads and grilled meats. Fall and winter are the appropriate times for long cooked soups and roasted meats with root vegetables. I'm pretty staunch in this belief, so it was surprising to me that I made up a batch of soup tonight. A couple of reasons contributed to this unseasonal turn of events. First, it is rather cool here in Ohio for late August (like windows open, debating throwing a sweatshirt on cool). Second, the butternut squash in our garden is doing quite well and I needed to start using it. So soup seemed like the logical conclusion. Although I've enjoyed squash soup, I've never made it before, so I made it to taste like I thought it should (while cutting out all dairy). It turned out quite tasty, so here is the "recipe":

1 onion roughly chopped
5 slices of bacon
2 cloves of garlic
2 carrots
1 small potato
1 butternut squash peeled and cubed
1/4 cup of maple syrup
1 carton of stock
the following spices to taste: cinnamon, cayenne pepper, black pepper, rosemary

Chop bacon and add to preheated heavy stock pot. Cook 2 minutes. Add chopped onions and sweat out in bacon grease. Add garlic. Add spices (I used a lot of cinnamon). Add chopped carrots and potato. Continue cooking for 5 minutes or until onions are translucent. Add maple syrup. Add stock. Bring to boil. Add squash. Cook until squash is soft. Use immersion blender to puree to desired consistency (I left some small chunky bits). Enjoy!