Butternut Squash Soup with Greens and Parmesan Sage Toast (Freezing instructions!!)

My family loves this soup! When Ryan saw our 1st butternut squash in our CSA bag, he said, "yum, soup." And bonus, it freezes very well!

Last Saturday, I picked up a bunch of butternut squash from the farmer's market. I had some from CSA but needed to add a lot to make enough soup to freeze. I also picked up some low-temp pasteurized cream from Earthwise (my schedule just freed up a lot, so I'm hoping to make a trip to a raw milk dairy soon!).

The following is the normal recipe with normal proportions. I made five times that much and froze a bunch. Here's what a normal, sane person makes:

• 2 lbs butternut squash
• 1 diced onion (white or yellow)
• 2 large carrots
• 1 - 32 oz. container broth (I use chicken, but use vegetable if you want a vegetarian soup)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp. butter
• 1/2 cup cream

I used 10 pounds of squash. Peel, half, seed, and dice them. Just rough dice, you are going to puree it after they cook.

Put them in your pot.

I used a big pot.

Peel and rough chop your carrots. I had more carrots, but somebody has been munching on them! But I will never complain about the boys in my house eating too many veggies!

Rough chop the onions.

Throw everything in the pot.

Cover everything with broth. The veggies do cook down. So if you want a thicker soup, use less broth and let the veggies peek through the top a little.

Add the salt.

Cover and bring to a boil over med-high heat. Once it is simmering, turn down to low. Cook until the squash is fork-tender. It took my pot about 40 minutes to come to a simmer and then 30 minutes simmering.

While that cooks, saute the greens and make the toast. 

Greens:

• Malibar spinach (from Cardos' Farm Project)
• Peppers (from Cardo's)
• Onion
• Braising Greens (from Cardo's)
• Basil (from Cardo's)
• Garlic (from Cardo's)

Chop everything. Saute on medium heat with about 2 tbsp coconut oil, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar. Saute for about 7-10 minutes.

Sage pairs very well with this soup. When I have fresh sage, I will chop some up and garnish my bowl of soup with it. I used dried sage for the toast.

Butter your bread. I just put butter pieces on the bread instead of spreading it. It spreads as it melts.

Top with grated Parmesan and sage. Bake at 350 for about 5-7 minutes.

When the squash is tender, add the butter. Puree. I use my immersion blender. Find it here on Amazon. This blender is my favorite kitchen gadget!

Add the cream and mix on low (you don't want to froth the milk).

And here's what 10 pounds of squash makes! I froze them in ziplock bags because I didn't have anything else to put them in. They lay flat. To thaw, just put in the fridge overnight. Easy peasy!

I am excited that my lazy composting has changed!! The farm I volunteer at (Cardo's Farm Project) gave me one of their totes. I will fill it up with stuff for their compost. Then I'll bring them the tote full of goodies and get a new tote. I'm excited the my compost is going to actually be used for something! If you are in a CSA, see if your farm wants your compost if you aren't using it. Most of my scraps are from their farm anyway, so it's nice it's going back from whence it came.

Here's my little man munching on his butternut squash and greens. We are starting to enter picky toddler eating, so I'm going to brag on his eating for as long as I can! A trick that is working a little for me, coat everything in cinnamon. I am finding that if I add a sprinkle of cinnamon when I cook his food (or even afterwards if he is eating from our food), he is a little more adventurous with the vegetables. Cinnamon is really good for his immune system, so I don't mind adding a pinch. But I am worried about him learning to not like veggies unless they have cinnamon! Many more blog posts about toddler eating will be coming soon, I'm sure!

Here's one of the bags thawing in the fridge. You also see a bag of hatch chili peppers thawing, low-temp pasteurized milk, raw goat's milk, lemons for my morning detox drink, pecans, and pumpkin cream.