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Yes, I know these are neither foraged pumpkins nor are there wild animals in the soup. But remember this blog does have the word “gardener” in it, and I still garden, if less strenuously than in earlier years. One thing I still do grow are squashes. I love winter squashes, and have been on a quest to find the perfect one: Bright orange inside, with tasty seeds and that can keep for months without rotting.
This year I grew an Italian chiogga squash, which is a kind of kabocha; green and warty, with yellow flesh. Not bad, but not my favorite. I’ve grown Navajo pumpkins and Long Island cheese pumpkins and real kabochas from Japan. But so far, I still prefer the common butternut squash. I love the color, the flavor how dry it is and how long it keeps. This soup is made with butternut. You can choose your own favorite squash.
As for the bacon, any will do, but I like to use my homemade bacon, which is easy to make and, well, makes this soup feel more real to me.
Spicy Butternut Squash Soup with Bacon
Ingredients
- 1 yellow or white onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/3 to 1/2 pound bacon or salt pork, diced (use less if it's really smoky)
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (or more to taste)
- 1 quart turkey, chicken or vegetable stock
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
- Salt
- 2 heaping tablespoons creme fraiche or sour cream (optional)
- Smoked paprika (optional)
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the butter over medium-high heat and add the onions and bacon. Cook, stirring often, until the onions are translucent. You don't want them browning. Pour in the stock, add the cayenne, squash, bay leaves and a healthy pinch of salt. You might need a little water to completely submerge the squash. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low, cover and simmer gently for an hour. Stir it once or twice in that time.
- Uncover the pot, remove the bay leaves and puree the soup, either with an immersion blender, by moving the soup to a blender or a food processor, or by pushing it through a food mill. An immersion blender will give you a slightly chunky soup, a blender the smoothest. Return the soup to the pot, put the bay leaves back in and simmer gently, uncovered, for another 15 minutes. Stir frequently to keep it from sticking on the bottom.
- Add salt to taste. Right before you serve, whisk in the sour cream or creme fraiche. Adjust the thickness of the soup - you want it to look like melted ice cream. Serve garnished with pumpkin or squash seeds and smoked paprika.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I know it’s not soup weather now, but I don’t care.
I want this for dinner tonight!
Made this one yesterday exactly as written. Fresh squash & onions from the garden and homemade bacon ends/pieces hot off the smoker. AMBROSIA!
Well done!!! I made this recipe with Pumpkin this weekend. It was awesome!!!
Anna: You don’t need to freeze it, as this soup will keep in the fridge for a good 3-5 days. Definitely hold off on the sour cream until you serve it, though.
I made this delicious soup last week with a small pumpkin, bacon and sour cream (couldn’t find creme fraiche), and pureed the soup with my blender. Amazing soup!
I would like to make this soup for Thanksgiving, but would like to make it in advance so that i’m not making soup on top of potatoes, etc. Has anyone made the soup and put it in the freezer? I’m thinking if I do not add the sour cream/creme fraiche before freezing, it might turn out okay. Any hints or tips would be greatly appreciated!
Cheers,
Anna
I’ve been drooling over this every since you posted about it. So I made this for tonight’s dinner, and can’t wait to serve it to the family. It’s really delicious, and such a pretty soup! Thank you!
I love delicata squash. They don’t keep as long as some of the other winter squash, but they have wonderful flavour.
This really is a terrific approach to soup!
My notes:
Used salt pork
Used creme fraiche
After the first simmer, I used a dipper to bring up the solid parts and pureed them in the food processor.
There was quite a bit of liquid, which I held to the side.
I reintroduced a few ladle-fulls of liquid, and held onto the rest. The goal is to make some amazing risotto with the broth, infused with salt pork, onions, squash and bay leaves.
I’m thinking that some roasted vegetables could be pureed and join the soup for the last simmer, too… maybe later.
Always looking for new squash soup recipes. My favorite winter squash/pumpkin is the Hokkaido. It also has bright orange flesh and great taste, but what makes it win hands down is that you can just chop it into chunks without peeling. After cooking the peel just melts in with the flesh. I’ve stored them in a cool place in the basement for about 6 months.
I second the Red Kuri. They’re really tasty and versatile. You can halve and roast them, and then the skin usually peels off easily, as opposed to having to scoop out the flesh. I like to be able to end up with a nice chunk of intact roasted squash to cube or dice or whatever, and it’s easier than having to peel and chop it before cooking. They taste a little pumpkin-y and I’d say they store quite well. If you like the traditional butternut, have you tried the Tahitian? They look like a really gigantic, curved butternut, but they are sweeter and I’ve had them store for over a year before. The trick is they can take up to 120 days to ripen, so put them in early.
We planted a Cinderella pumpkin last spring and it produced a 56-pound beast along with some 30- and 20-pounders. Those lasted a full year in a shady spot on a dry porch. Fantastic flavor and texture; I loved eating it raw.
https://blog.sondy.com/2011/12/the-56-pound-pumpkin/
This is almost exactly the same as my recipe, including the crème fraiche. The only difference is that I add walnuts with the bacon at the start.
I grew some Japanese Red Kuri Squash this year and I’ve been looking for some good recipes to try. This sounds excellent and simple. Just the way I like it. As my son says, anything’s good with bacon.
https://sustainableseedco.com/Japanese-Red-Kuri-Squash-Seeds.html
I agree, butternut squash is hard to beat! A simple soup of bacon, squash, and creme fraiche seems like a great idea. Happy Halloween!
This is very similar to my Butternut squash soup. I use heavy creme, and then to make it a different flavor profile, I use garam masala and alittle chinese 5 spice – super yummy!!
That looks delicious, currently I am growing butternut, hubbard blue and Galeux D Eysines (warty, and supposed to be sweet, long stored and delicious). I know what I will be cooking in the coming weeks as thing ripen up. I do still have some butternut from the spring that I could do this with now. Perhaps with some fried rabbit on the side…
Trying this tomorrow after all the trick o’ treaters. Thanks Hank!