Ah, it is Sunday morning and the WHB anniversary deadline is looming in a manner of minutes. I made this soup and started this post days ago for the event but I haven’t had time to finish it yet! Since it is such a special edition of the event and we were to focus on a vegetable and a herb I chose a vegetable I hadn’t ever cooked with before and made a soup. I used rosemary to accent the flavour of the squash but it was all very experimental. In the end I liked the soup, I really liked the toasted seeds from the squash and I liked the flavour with rosemary. It isn’t nearly as smooth as a soup made with butternut squash but it’s texture is quite nice and warming in these misty days. Don’t forget to go and checkout the roundup at Kalyn’s Kitchen and congratulate Kalyn on 2 years of hosting!
(serves 2)
1 medium acorn squash
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon rosemary, roughly crumbled, or chopped if fresh
freshly ground black pepper
½ medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2-4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
salt and pepper to taste
1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Peel the squash. Remove the pulp and seeds and reserve. Chop squash into a 1cm dice approximately. Toss with 2 1/2T of olive oil, 1t salt, freshly ground pepper and the rosemary and put in a large casserole or on a baking sheet.
3. Bake squash for about an hour or until tender, turning occasionally. Meanwhile separate the seeds from the pulp, rinse them and dry them with paper towels. Toss with 1/2T of olive oil and a generous amount of salt.
4. When squash is ready remove from oven and increase temperature to 400F. In a large heavy bottom dutch oven or soup pot add remaining 1T olive oil over medium low heat sweat onions for 3-5 minutes until translucent. Add garlic and sweat, stirring for another minute. Add squash and cook for 2 minutes. Add stock and bring to a simmer. Allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Taste for seasoning.
5. Wipe out casserole and add the seeds. Cook for 5-8 minutes, watching carefully, giving them a stir every 2 minutes or so. You want them slightly brown and toasted.
6. Put 3/4 of the squash through a blender (or use a hand blender). Gently mush remaining with the back of a soup. You want there to still be some texture.
Serve soup with crusty bread, garnished with seeds.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Thank you! Acorn squash is new to me this year. With two in this week’s CSA box, I made a different (Thai-inspired) soup and was wondering if I could roast the seeds. You’ve answered that question AND provided me a recipe for next week’s bounty!
I’ve been thinking about making acorn squash soup – I have a lot of them…butternut, too. Thanks for the recipe… Looks lovely and thick..Just how we like soup!
This does sound so good. I love soup with squash, although I haven’t had it with acorn. (I thought I had already left a comment, so if this is the second one, just scratch this one, maybe I’m getting forgetful!
A very comforting soup!!!! An excellent choice for WHB anniversary!!
Dolores – well it didn’t kill me and tasted pretty good so hopefully it is fine
katiez – I envy your squash they are one of my favorites.
Kalyn\Valli – thanks, I love soup season.
Mmmm! Squash soup is one of my favourite soups. What a great idea to use toasted seeds as a garnish!
-Elizabeth
P.S. Having difficulty with the “publish your comment” button – please excuse if I have commented twice.
A yummy soup to warm your body up in colder days. Will have to look for acorn squash, didn´t come across it here!!
Thanks for sharing.