vegetable stock + a pot of squash soup!

we've been making a ton of soup and one of our favorites is this 

butternut squash and apple soup!

the recipe we use at home is inspired by one in our favorite cookbooks, The Healthy Kitchen. it's the cookbook in our kitchen that has the most splashes and sticky pages! and the one we're always gifting to family and friends!

i highly recommend looking up their Vegetable  Lasagna (with eggplant) and the Baked Vegetable Wontons. both recipes we make for nearly every occasion and they're wonderful if you're looking for things everyone can help out with in the kitchen!

for us, the key to good soup is making your own vegetable stock! in summer, we compost all of our vegetable scraps, but in the wintertime, we save them in a container in the freezer for stock. we make enough stock for two pots of soup, saving the extra in the refrigerator so it's ready to go!

celery, onion and carrot scraps brown the best (so it's wonderful if you can add some of those to your mix). we've also loved adding kale and spinach. 

Directions (vegetable stock)

when you're ready to make your stock, add your celery, carrot, and onion scraps with a bit of oil to your pot. cook them until you build up that thick brown (fond) on the bottom of the pot. then add the rest of your scraps and 2 quarts of water and let it all simmer for 20 minutes, then strain and you've got your stock. 

adding the water is what gets all of the fond up off the bottom of your pot and gives your stock that rich color and a ton of flavor!

here's the soup original recipe that we've been inspired by from wholeliving.com: 

roasted winter squash and apple soup recipe!

Soup Ingredients

Serves 4

• 1 large winter squash (about 2 1/2 pounds), such as butternut or kabocha, peeled, seeded, and cut into 2-inch pieces
• 2 medium onions, peeled and quartered
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored, and quartered
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Coarse salt
• Chili powder, for seasoning (optional)
• 4 cups Andy's Vegetable Stock
• Cilantro Walnut Pesto, for garnish (optional)

 

Soup Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large roasting pan, toss squash, onions, garlic, and apples with oil to coat. Season well with salt and chile powder. Roast, stirring every 10 minutes, until vegetables are fork-tender and lightly browned, about 40 minutes.
2. Transfer half the vegetables and 2 cups stock to a food processor; puree until smooth. Repeat with remaining vegetables and broth. Return pureed mixture to pot, thinning soup with stock, if necessary. Season with salt and chile powder; bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Serve immediately, garnished with Cilantro Walnut Pesto, if desired. 

we switch it up a bit by adding celery, carrots and using gala apples. we also like to add in a few cloves and bay leaves (take them out before you blend anything). 

and we make it much easier on ourselves by just roasting the squash (we use butternut or acorn) for 40 minutes in the oven, so you're not watching and stirring it every 10 minutes. 

then, 10 minutes before the squash comes out of the oven, we add the apples, celery, carrots, onion and garlic to the soup pot with a bit of oil. let them roast, building up the brown (fond) on the bottom of the pot for 10 minutes. you really want to cook the apples and veggies down until their fork-tender.

now you can add your stock and squash to the pot and follow the rest of the original recipe! or sometimes, we also like to leave our soup chunky and only blend half the ingredients!

serve and enjoy!