Roasted Root Vegetable Soup

4 Jan

I’ve had a lonely acorn squash floating around my kitchen for weeks now. I kept moving it from surface to surface, hoping I’d find the proper night to cook it. In flipping through the few cookbooks I own, I found a recipe for a roasted root vegetable soup that called for butternut squash. I figured I couldn’t go wrong substituting it with acorn squash and I was right. (I love being right.)

The original recipe can be found in this book, and calls for turnips and leeks, but adds the note that you can use other vegetables depending on what’s in season. I think celery or sweet potatoes would be a wonderful addition as well. I tasted the soup partway through cooking and thought it needed a little more sweetness, so I added brown sugar. You could alternatively roast the acorn squash with brown sugar instead of adding it later. I hope you enjoy, it’s a perfect recipe for the cold winter months.

Ingredients:

1 whole acorn squash, halved and seeded
3 carrots, cut into rounds
1 large parsnip, cut into rounds
1 large onion, peeled and quartered
3 large garlic cloves, skins on
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp both salt & pepper
3 cups water with 3 tsp vegetable bouillon
1 tsp ground sage (optional)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
vegan sour cream and/or pumpkin butter to serve

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut vegetables and toss into a large pot (excluding acorn squash). Toss with olive oil and salt and pepper in the pot until vegetables are coated. Pour 1 teaspoon of olive oil on each half of the acorn squash and set on a baking sheet. Spread the vegetables on the baking sheet around the squash. Roast for about 50 minutes until tender, turning once or twice.

2. Remove from the oven and transfer the vegetables into the same large pot from before, excluding the squash. Pour the vegetable broth into the pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, add seasonings if needed, and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Use an immersion blender to blend the soup, or transfer to a blender in batches. Scrape the insides from the acorn squash, mash, and add to the mixture. Mine was really thick at this point, so I added around 1 1/2 cups water and blended it until soup until completely smooth. Sprinkle in brown sugar and sage, if desired. Serve with sour cream or pumpkin butter swirled in.