Squash Soup with Ginger

This squash soup, with its bright orange colour and warming ginger is my “chicken” soup that I eat when I have a cold or the flu. Or when I’m looking for comfort food to warm me on a cold day.

This is a “Kristen” recipe – very imprecise but also very flexible. It takes some time with all the chopping. I recommend making a big batch because it freezes well.

Ingredients

Vegetable oil (preferably olive oil)
Member of the allium family (onion, garlic, leek, shallots)
Ginger (I like about an inch)
2 or 3 kinds of orange vegetables like winter squash (my favourite is butternut but any kind will work including pumpkin), carrots, yams, sweet potatoes
Vegetable stock, chicken stock or water (water will make the blandest soup – use as a last resort)
Orange juice
Salt or seaweed
Fresh ground pepper

Directions

1.           Finely chop the members of the allium family.

2.           Grate the ginger.

3.           Peel and chop the orange veggies. Cut squash, yams, and sweet potatoes into ½ to 1 inch pieces. Cut the carrots into coins. Carrots take longer to cook than squash and yams/ sweet potatoes are in the middle. So, you will want the carrot pieces smaller than the squash pieces and the yam/ sweet potato pieces middle in size.

4.           In a large, heavy bottomed pot, add enough oil to cover the bottom of the pot. Heat it over low-medium heat. Add the allium family members and cook until onions/ shallots are translucent or the leeks have softened.

5.           Add the ginger and orange vegetables and sauté for a few minutes, stirring frequently.

6.           Add enough stock to just cover the veggies. Add seaweed or salt. Cover with a lid, turn up the heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-high and boil gently until the orange veggies are soft, stirring periodically. Add stock/ water while cooking, if needed. 

7.           Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.

8.           Using a blender or hand-held mixer, puree the soup, adding orange juice one splash at a time until you reach your desired consistency and flavour. 

9.           Return to the pot and re-heat. Serve hot, topped with a sprinkling of freshly ground pepper.

10.       Enjoy!