Recipe: Roasted Carrot and Butternut Squash Soup

I really like a soup. Tomato soup, tonkotsu ramen, and Italian wedding soup are my favorites, but really any soup is good for me, and anything can be a soup if you want it to be.

When I lived in Mexico City I used to have lunch at my friend’s house quite often and the soups were always delicious — carrot, broccoli, whatever. I asked about the soups, so she taught me how she makes her carrot soup. It was deceptively simple but tasted complex (a lot like my utter surprise at my mother-in-law’s deceptively simple tomato soup).

She simply diced the carrot and onion, smashed one clove of garlic, and sautéed it all until it was soft, then added that to a blender plus vegetable broth. And that’s how I’ve been doing it ever since. The results are usually pretty fail proof and easily customized to anyone’s tastes.

It was chilly the day I made this, so I roasted the vegetables and added some curry powder and cayenne. Roasting adds an extra layer of flavor and means I don’t have to stand over the stove to get the flavor. Curry powder goes well with gourds, I've found, and it was easy to adapt my pumpkin soup recipe to butternut squash.

I like to serve this with grilled cheese (comfort food!), but you can do croutons or a thick slice of toasted bread, salads (like, a nice tart leafy salad with pickled shallots and parmesan shards would go really well here), and wilted bitter greens dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Or, whatever is delicious and brings you a bit of joy.

Ingredients

• 1 large carrot, peeled and chopped

• 1/2 large butternut squash, peeled and cubed

• 1 large shallot, peeled and chopped

• 3 smallish garlic cloves, peeled and smashed

• 1/4 tsp ginger

• 1 tsp curry powder (ish)

• pinch of cayenne pepper (or to taste)

• 1 tsp vegetable or chicken bouillon (something like Better Than Bouillon, or even homemade stock)

• 1 liter water

• 1 - 1 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar (ish)

1. Toss squash, carrot, and shallot in olive oil, salt, and pepper. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C) and roast veggies until tender. Pull them out.

2. Sauté garlic in olive oil, and then add the spices and some salt and pepper to bloom.

3. Add the roasted veggies, bouillon, and half the water. Start blending with an immersion blender, and then slowly add the rest of the water until it’s smooth.

4. Taste for seasoning, and add a splash of apple cider vinegar.

5. Serve with a dollop of Greek yogurt, and any form of crunchy thing, whether it’s croutons, a grilled cheese sandwich, a nicely toasted hunk of bread (nicely toasted means brushed with olive oil and dusted with flaky salt), or a salad.

Notes

• You might need to pull the shallot before the carrot and squash are done, but just keep an eye and nose on things. Also, color is good! Color is flavor, so I would go until the veggies have some browning along the cut edges/corners.

• If you want something smoother, you can puree the tender vegetables in a processor or blender and add them to the pot and continue on with the recipe.

• If you want a thinner soup, you can add more water but you’ll need to adjust seasoning. If you want thicker, don’t add all the water, or let the soup simmer while you do something else (such as prepare grilled cheese sandwiches or a salad).

• Adding an acid like ACV will brighten the flavors and make you go, “Huh. Nice.” Like, people ask me what adding an acid like lemon juice does for food and the only thing I can tell them is to try something without it, then add the lemon juice and try it, and you’ll notice the difference.

Instructions