Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Here's what Tara brought down from Underwood Family Farms today:

Butternut squash
Fuji apples
Dragon carrots
Sweet corn
Kale
Red leaf lettuce
Spinach
Yellow pear-shaped cherry tomatoes
Pink Brandywine tomatoes
Pickling cucumbers

And Silver Lake Farms provided pea shoots this week.

When the weather turns cool, I think of soup; and one of my fall favorites is roasted butternut squash soup. It's delicious and so easy to make - simply roast the squash, puree it, and thin it with the liquid of your choice: water, stock, milk and/or cream. Season it with salt and pepper and you've got a wonderful starter; add a nice salad and/or some grainy bread and you have a lovely meal.

If you want to get fancy, you can add some flaked Dungeness cake or shrimp. You can cut the kernels off the ears of corn from today's box and add them, too. I like to add a little freshly ground nutmeg to my soup; squash seems to love that sweet spice.

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

1 butternut squash
3-4 C chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 C cream (more or less to taste)
3/4 C flaked Dungeness crab
3/4 C fresh corn kernels
freshly ground salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cut squash in half lengthwise. Scoop out seeds and compost them. Place squash, cut side down on a lightly greased baking an and roast in oven until very tender.

3. Remove from oven and set squash aside until cool enough to handle. Then scoop out squash; compost them skin. [You can roast the squash in advance and refrigerate it for several days before making the soup.]

4. In a blender or food processor (or with a fork), puree the squash. Pour it into a stock pot and add 3 C stock. Heat to a simmer, stirring often. Turn down heat, add remining stock and/or cream, if desired.

5. Stir in crab and corn. Season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Enjoy!

Shelley