Open Thread: Soup

Hosted by a bowl of soup

Good morning, my lovelies!  Apologies for missing Monday's open thread (did you miss me?  Were you devastated by my absence?), but I was sick as a dog.

As I generally consider life events to be prompts for open threads, I considered doing an OT on sickness, but then I reconsidered on the grounds that that would be gross.  (At least one on my sickness would have been.  I was pretty gross.)  So instead, I'm doing one on the sick person's best friend: soup!

Happily, I was the last one in the house to catch the plague, so we already had plenty of homemade chicken noodle soup leftover from when it hit my husband.  And chicken noodle soup is a staple.  It's not my favorite, though - in a world full of tomato soup, potato soup, miso soup, broccoli cheddar soup, egg drop soup, pho, and french onion soup, chicken noodle is sadly not even in my top 10 list.

Here, then, is the newest soup recipe that I am super-excited about and eager to make:

Winter Squash Soup

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 tablespoon good olive oil

2 cups chopped yellow onions (2 onions)

1 (15 - ounce) can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled and cut in chunks

3 cups homemade chicken stock or canned broth

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup half - and - half

Creme fraiche, grated Gruyere, or croutons (see Note), for serving (optional)

Directions

Heat the butter and oil in a heavy - bottomed stockpot, add the onions, and cook over medium - low heat for 10 minutes, or until translucent. Add the pumpkin puree, butternut squash, chicken stock, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer over medium - low heat for about 20 minutes, until the butternut squash is very tender. Process the mixture through the medium blade of a food mill. Return to the pot, add the half - and - half, and heat slowly. If the soup needs more flavor, add another teaspoon of salt. Serve hot with garnishes, if desired.

Cook's Note: To serve with croutons, remove the crusts from 2 slices of white bread, cut them in 1/2-inch cubes, and saute them in 1 tablespoon of butter until browned. Season with salt and pepper.

***

What do you think?  Does it sound delicious?  

Open thread!  What is your favorite soup, to make or to eat or both?  Do you like chicken noodle soup best when you're sick, or do you have another favorite "feel-better" soup?  Bread bowls: delicious, or kind of annoying?  Do you have any cool soup recipes to share?

~ Kristycat

Wednesday Reminder!  Open threads are meant to be fun, chatty places to discuss anything that doesn’t “fit” into a deconstruction or other regular thread.  This can be something totally off-the-wall and random, or it can be something interesting that a deconstruction prompted you to think of, but which would be derailing to get into in the deconstruction thread.  When in doubt, move it over here - that’s what it’s for!  

And, like on all threads: please remember to use the "post new comment" feature rather than the "reply" feature, even when directly replying to someone else!