This is clearly the season for soup, and thanks to my lovely mother, there will be a lot of it this week. After last week’s not so smooth (yet still delicious) black bean and butternut squash soup, she went and sent me an immersion blender. Isn’t she awesome? In order to ensure that it gets a lot of use, I’ve already planned to make three, yes, three soups this week. And no, that is not a giant bowl of mustard you see above, that is a very simple, yet very delicious buttercup Hubbard squash soup.
I wasn’t planning on squash soup, since it just seemed a little repetitive, but when I saw Hubbard squash at the Roche on Sunday I had to buy it. Oddly, they called it buttercup squash, but as it turns out it was a Hubbard. Or rather, a piece of a Hubbard. A small piece. A piece so small that, much to my surprise, it made a single bowl of soup. Now that is cooking for one.
Hubbard squash has this very odd, almost alien blue skin. It’s actually a little unappealing to look at, which is unfortunate because it has a really delicate, sweet taste–sometimes a nice change from your pumpkins and acorns and other overbearing, popular-kid squashes. The Hubbard did take a little longer to bake than I expected, especially considering that it wasn’t a very big piece of squash.
I mean, I managed to scrape out almost all of the flesh, and this is what I got for my work:
I decided to go for it, and in about 10 minutes (this isn’t counting the roasting part) I had a really tasty, simple bowl of soup.
Hubbard Squash Soup for one small person
- a piece of Hubbard squash (grocery stores usually sell it like this because it is LARGE and tough to break open)
- 1/2 c. chicken stock (or less)
- a splash of lowfat milk
- a pinch of nutmeg
- a few tablespoons parmesan cheese
- some salt and pepper
Heat the oven to 400F, and put the squash piece in a baking dish with about half a cup of water. Bake it until the squash is very soft–it took me about an hour, but I did the first 30 minutes at 350F. Just check in out it every now and then and poke it with a fork a few times. Once it’s soft and yields easily to the fork, it’s done.
Place a pot on the stove. A big pot actually works well because you can put the hot squash piece in it and scrape the flesh right out into the pot without too big of a mess, which might be harder with a pot that actually reflects the amount of soup you’re going to make. But do what you feel is necessary.
Scrape out as much of the squashy goodness as you can, then throw in a few splashes of chicken stock and a splash of milk. Stir it all up well and let it simmer over medium-low heat until the squash is nicely blended with everything and it looks smoother. Add some nutmeg (or maybe some ginger, or even cumin, if you’re feeling crazy). Then, yay!, immersion blender time! I actually put the soup into a smaller container because I didn’t think it was deep enough to blend in my big soup pot. But this thing is seriously awesome: in two minutes, I had a perfect squash soup puree.
Then just add a little salt and pepper to taste, and serve it up. To yourself.
Then get back to writing your paper, you lazy procrastinating twit! (Oh, sorry, talking to myself again.)
PS–I am a totally pathetically bad food blogger who didn’t take a single picture at Thanksgiving! I made rolls! From scratch! And the now-infamous green bean casserole! And Mr. X made incredible heart-attack worthy mashed potatoes. And his sister served up a truly impressive turkey. And man, not a single picture. I’m lame.