Ginger-Butternut Squash Soup

Ah, autumn. After a long mid-Atlantic summer, I always look for forward to fall. Not only for the cooler temps, but for the food! Today’s recipe uses one of my favorite fall farmer’s market finds: butternut squash.

This soup is inspired by a recipe given to me by my MOH at my bridal shower. Each attendee at my bridal shower brought a recipe and small gift that would help in making said recipe…so fun!

Along with this recipe, I received my immersion blender, which is something I never thought I needed but in retrospect is AWESOME. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Vitamix, but an immersion blender eliminates so much mess from transferring soup from the pot to the blender.

There’s a secret ingredient in this recipe: parmesan rind. Every time I finish off a piece of parmesan, I toss the rind in my freezer. A piece of parmesan rind is awesome to add into so many soups and sauces!

Another tip for this recipe (or any recipe that calls for fresh ginger), use a spoon to peel the ginger and then a microplane zester to ‘mince’ the ginger. SO much easier!

Ginger Butternut Squash Soup

Serves: 4-6

Prep time: 10 min

Cook time: 40 min

• 1 butternut squash, peeled & diced
• 2 leeks, white part only, sliced
• 2 T butter
• 2″ piece of ginger, peeled & grated
• 4 C broth (I used Chicken, but Vegetable broth will keep this recipe vegetarian)
• 1/2 t salt
• 1/4 t white pepper
• parmesan rind (optional)

1. Melt butter over medium heat in dutch oven
2. Add butternut squash, cover and cook for ~20min until fork tender
3. Add leeks, ginger, salt and pepper
4. Stir well, cook for ~10min
5. Add broth and parmesan rind
6. Bring to a boil, cook for ~10min
7. Blend soup, either in the pot using an immersion blender or transfer into a blender
8. Enjoy!

Question: What’s your favorite fall food?

Chinese Chicken & Mushroom Soup

We’ve been seeing a lot of crazy rain recently here in Baltimore. So despite it being June, it’s been great soup weather!

This is what I call “fork-and-spoon-soup”, because the soba noodles are hard to tackle with a spoon, but you don’t want to miss any of the delicious broth! The broth is salty from the soy sauce, yet tart from the lime juice.

    

This soup could easily be made vegetarian buy substituting tofu for the chicken. I baked some chicken while the soup cooked and then shredded it to add at the end. Someone in our house was very excited at the prospect of any chicken falling to the floor…

    

Soba noodles are made of buckwheat, which explains their dark brown color. If you’ve never had soba before, I highly recommend trying it; if you’re totally opposed, any type of noodle would work in this soup (egg noodles, spaghetti, or even rice).

This soup comes together pretty quickly, especially if you have some pre-cooked chicken/tofu on hand. So, go ahead and put it on the menu this week!

Chinese Chicken & Mushroom Soup

Prep time: 5 min

Cook time: 20 min

Serves: 2

• 10oz mushrooms (I used baby portobello)
• 3C chicken broth
• 6oz baby bok choy
• 3oz soba noodles
• 8oz chicken, shredded
• 1T soy sauce
• juice from 1 lime

1. Add mushrooms to dutch oven over medium heat; cook until most of liquid has released
2. Add chicken broth to pot, bring to a boil
3. Add boy choy, cover and steam/cook for 5 min
4. Add soba noodles, cover and cook for 5 min
5. Add chicken, soy sauce and lime juice to the pot and warm through
6. Enjoy!

Question: Does your pet(s) hang out in the kitchen while you cook? Do you ever let them ‘taste test’ what you’re cooking?

Creamy Chicken, Mushroom & Broccoli Soup

It was a dreary day in Baltimore, so last night I made Creamy Chicken, Mushroom & Broccoli Soup (loosely based on a recipe from Skinny Taste).

I used low sodium chicken broth, and unsalted butter for this soup. I like to use low/no sodium ingredients when I’m cooking, so that I can add my desired amount of salt as I go. I usually won’t list salt and pepper in a recipe, but I always taste my food as it’s cooking and use salt (I’m a fan of kosher salt) and freshly ground black pepper when necessary. Salt and pepper can seriously make or break a meal, so don’t forget about them!

I had never made this soup before, but I liked the technique of blending part of the soup to thicken it up…I will definitely be doing that again! Also, this technique uses one of my all-time favorite kitchen appliances, my Vitamix. We were lucky enough to receive our Vitamix from my husband’s parents as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago, as these blenders are quite the monetary investment. I’ve been in love with it ever since! It’s great for my morning smoothie, soups, nut butters, sauces, and the list goes on.

You’ll notice that this soup has chicken in it, so I want to point out that I’m not strictly a vegetarian. That being said, you will see quite a few vegetarian recipes here on the blog. I eat meat occasionally, and when I do it’s mainly chicken or seafood. If you don’t eat meat, you could easily keep the chicken out of this recipe and use vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.

On my way home, I picked up some Panera sourdough rolls to serve alongside this soup…highly recommend! However, a nice side salad would also be a great, lighter, option.

Creamy Chicken, Mushroom & Broccoli Soup

Prep time: 5min

Cook time: 35min

Serves: 3

• 1/2lb chicken breast
• 8oz baby bella mushrooms, sliced
• 4oz shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 4 stalks celery
• 2C broccoli, chopped
• 4C chicken broth
• 3T flour
• 1T butter

1. Place flour & chicken broth in blender; blend until smooth
2. Pour mixture into dutch oven, over medium heat
3. Add mushrooms, celery, broccoli & butter; bring to a boil
4. Add chicken, cover and cook for 15min (until chicken is cooked)
5. Remove chicken, let cool before shredding or dicing
6. Place celery and 1.5C of soup into blender; blend until smooth
7. Add blended soup back into dutch over, along with the shredded/chopped chicken

Question: What’s the most recent kitchen/cooking technique you’ve learned?