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Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

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Thanksgiving — my favorite holiday — is around the corner and I can’t wait to start preparing warming fall flavors to celebrate with friends and family.

I’ve been cooking a thanksgiving meal for my people for 15 years, and it brings me much joy every time. I wrote about the joy and thrill of this holiday here . I look forward to building on that and creating new memories each year. Whether cooking for 25 people or 5 people, I’m simply thankful for the privilege to indulge.

My favorite way to begin the holiday meal is with this decadent and relatively healthy butternut squash soup. The key to the depth of flavor is roasting the vegetables. I often serve this as an appetizer while the mains roast and sizzle away and everyone is gathered in the kitchen enjoying wine, light appetizers, and each other’s company.

In Farsi, butternut squash is called lazy pumpkin (kadoo tanbal), which is hilarious. Butter-nut is the perfect name for this tender, sweet and nutty gourd. I simply roast the squash along with red bell peppers, onion and garlic in the oven, then blend everything together with a bit of broth and a touch of cream for a luscious end result. You can skip the cream for a dairy-free option. I serve it with toasty bread and a garnish of thyme. It’s delicious and warming – A foreshadowing to the rest of an amazing meal to come.

Ingredients:
2-3 medium butternut squash, sliced in half and seeds removed
3 medium white onions, quartered
2 red bell peppers, cut in half and seeds removed
4-6 cloves garlic (adjust to taste)
1/2 cup olive oil, add more if needed
3-4 cups vegetable stock or water, as needed
1 teaspoon salt, adjust to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Fresh lemon juice to taste
1/4 cup cream (optional)
4-6 spring of Thyme for garnish (optional)

Preparation

  1. Preheat oven to 375°F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment pape
  2. Slice squash in half, remove seeds, leaving skin on- it will be easier to remove once roasted.
  3. Place squash, skin side down along with onions, bell peppers, and garlic on two baking sheets. Generously coat the vegetables with olive oil, season with salt and pepper.
  4. Bake for about 40 minutes or until squash is golden brown.
  5. Roughly half way through, remove the garlic from the oven to avoid burning.
  6. Let the vegetables cool, then use a spoon to remove flesh of the squash from its skin.
  7. Working in batches, place roasted vegetables and stock in a blender or food processor and purée until smooth. Note- Be careful not to fill the blender to the top with hot vegetables as it will erupt. Leave roughly ¼ of the blender empty.
  8. Continue blending in batches, adding all the purred portions to a large pot. Then adjust the thickness of the soup by adding more stock or water until you get the desired consistency. Alternatively you can use an immersion blender in a pot.
  9. Add enough liquid to thin out the soup to your desired consistency.
  10. Taste and season with salt and pepper, if needed, and a squeeze of lemon for balance, if desired.
  11. If using, add the cream to the pot and stir until fully incorporated into the soup.

The soup will be naturally creamy at this point — the cream adds yet another level of indulgence and more luxurious, velvety texture to the mix

Serve with homemade crostini:
Cut sourdough or baguette of choice into  ½ inch thick slices. Drizzle bread with olive oil and season lightly with salt, pepper and dried oregano. Toast in the oven at 325 for 10 -15 minutes, or until golden brown.

The Winters of Our Lives

The Winters of Our Lives

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There is a chill in the air, but I can still sense spring. The days feel longer, the birds seem chirpier, and there is a whisper of optimism in the air accompanied by hope. Can you feel it? Of course this year’s springtime aspirations are deeper than winters past, with heavy hopes of collective healing from the pandemic trauma for our global village.

These days, this winter, I reflect often on the hibernation the pandemic has forced us into. Some, unfairly, into far more difficult circumstances than others. In these moments of quiet reflection, I cook, I read, and I listen to NPR . This New York Times Cooking recipe of Lemony beans with turkey and greens by Melissa Clark is brilliant, and perfectly warming for said cold winter nights. Recently as I cooked and listened to the soulful voice of Krista Tippett on the On Being podcast interviewing the brilliant Katherine May on her book “Wintering” and “how “wintering replenishes,” I was left in awe of this perspective. That winter is not the death of us, but a time of regeneration.

“Plants and animals don’t fight the winter; they don’t pretend it’s not happening and attempt to carry on living the same lives they did in the summer. They prepare. They adapt. They perform extraordinary acts of metamorphosis to get them through. Wintering is a time of withdrawing from the world, maximizing scant resources, carrying out acts of brutal efficiency and vanishing from sight; but that’s where the transformation occurs. Winter is not the death of the life cycle, but it’s crucible…“

“…It’s a time for reflection and recuperation, for slow replenishment, for putting your house in order. Doing these deeply unfashionable things- slowing down, letting your spare time expand, getting enough sleep, resting- is a radical act now, but it’s essential.”

That winter is a necessity with rewarding opportunities for growth was a paradigm shift for this lover of nature. I had never thought of winter that way. This profound lesson from nature humbled me. So often we are taught that life and self-growth consist of a linear movement through time. I’m realizing more and more that is not the case. Life is cyclical. It has seasons. Like nature’s Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, so go our lives. Some winters are bigger than others, some Springs may carry more joy and better new beginnings that the ones past. But onward we go, through the winters and the seasons of our lives, hopefully learning and building new and meaningful connections along the way.

A couple of years ago we had a series of tough storms in New York. One icy storm was particularly intense and sadly took down mighty trees. We were certain the sole rose which had miraculously made it to November would not make it through the icy cold attack on the garden. But somehow it did. Once the storm had passed, it stood majestically against the blue sky, rebellious, laughing at destiny. And while the rose is only a metaphor, I love how it represented getting through the storm with beauty and grace. Even if the flower had not been there, it’s roots would have been- replenishing deep within the soil and preparing for spring.


زندگی کوچه سبزی است
میان دل و دشت
زندگی حس شکوفایی یک مزرعه در باور بذر
زندگی رسم پذیرایی از تقدیر است

Life is a green pathway.
Meandering through love and Fields and deserts.
Life, is the plantations dream of blossoming in the imagination of the seedling.
Life, is the tradition of entertaining and welcoming destiny.

Above is a poem by beloved Persian Poet Sohrab Sepehri, which I humbly attempted to translate to English. I love it’s meaning and it’s promise. It beautifully captures the notion of the constant movement of life, the power of surrending to the seasons, and the infinite potential of imagination while tending to the gardens of our inner selves.

For further discovery on Wintering: Resilience and how trees illuminate the art of self-renewal in difficult times, read this incredible piece from Brain Pickings– one of my favorite corners of the world wide web, where Maria Popova shares wisdom drawn from literature, nature, science, art, philosophy, and the various nuance of the human experience.

I know I can be sentimental, and at the risk of being too cloying I had to share my sentiments on the literal and figurative winters of our lives. I’m grateful to the creators, writers, poets, recipe developers, and podcast engineers who provide ideas to support my season of self-renewal.

While restoring the spirit and nurturing the mind, nourishing the body also helps. Homemade feel-good food is an important part of self-care. You may want to try my Chicken & Rice Soup with Glorious Garlic Chili Chips. Rich and brothy with familiar flavors of home, this is a good-for-the-soul kind of delicious soup.

Or this creamy, dreamy butternut squash soup for a vegetarian option.

Meanwhile in the garden, Spring perseveres with it’s underground revolution…

Nani’s Decadent But Healthy Butternut Squash Soup

Nani’s Decadent But Healthy Butternut Squash Soup

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Pumpkins are in season now and there is no fall flavor I like more than butternut squash. In Farsi they are called lazy pumpkin (kadoo tanbal), which I think is hilarious. Butternut is the perfect name for this tender, sweet and nutty flavor. I simply roast it in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper. That’s it and it’s divine! With this recipe, I take the indulgence one step further to make a rich and savory soup.

The key to the amazing flavor is roasting the squash with garlic, onion and a red bell pepper, then blending all together for a smooth and creamy texture. The result is a complex, rich and silky soup with substance. I made it for Thanksgiving last year and it was a huge hit. It is naturally back on the menu again this year. Try it for your Thanksgiving celebration or all winter long- I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Note- I serve the soup with homemade crostini and a garnish of fresh thyme.
For the corstini, simply sprinkle the bread of your choice with salt, pepper and dried oregano. Drizzle with olive oil and toast in the oven for about 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy.

Recipes serves around 6-8 people, double or triple ingredients for a crowd pleaser- I sure will be this upcoming holiday.

Ingredients:
3 large butternut squash, sliced in half and seeds removed.
3 large white onions, quartered
2 red bell peppers, cut in half and seeds removed
4 cloves garlic (adjust to taste)
1/2 cup olive oil, add more if needed.
Salt and pepper
A squeeze of lemon

Directions:
Prep vegetables.
Slice squash in half, remove seeds, but leave skin on- it will be easier to remove once roasted.
Place vegetables on baking sheets- you’ll need 2.
Generously toss and coat with olive oil, season with salt + pepper.
Bake in 350 degree oven for approximately 40 minutes or until golden brown.
Roughly half way through, remove the garlic from the oven to avoid burning.
Once golden, let cool and remove flesh of squash separating from skin with a spoon.
Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Taste your magical mixture and give it a small squeeze of lemon for balance.
Salt and pepper if needed.
If consistency is too thick, add a small amount of water or olive oil for desired consistency.

The soup is amazing and rich up until this point. If you want to turn the dial on the indulgence factor, add a touch of cream or half and half while blending. But remember, it’s perfectly delicious and decadent if you keep it dairy-free.

The first harvest of butternut squash in Malekan Gardens!