Butternut Squash and Leek Soup

I've been meaning to make butternut squash soup for about six weeks now, and somehow I just haven't gotten around to it. It hasn't been for lack of ingredients either - the squash has been sitting patiently on my kitchen table for ages, reminding me at every meal that it needs to be used. Well tonight, inspired by the delicious butternut squash soup my grandmother made this past Sunday, I decided it was finally time for me to have a go at my own version of the soup.

It ended up being the perfect day for it too - cold, gray, rainy, and generally miserable. Just the sort of day when you want to curl up at home with a nice warm bowl of soup and not worry about anything!


I knew beforehand I wanted to incorporate my leeks into the soup, but searching for recipes online, I couldn't find any one recipe that had exactly what I wanted. So, I read through lots of recipes and then used those as a starting point to make my own version, which turned out to be quite tasty, and is given below.

You will need:
1 butternut squash
1 large leek
Broth (several cups)
A few cloves of garlic
A sprig of fresh parsley
Rosemary
Thyme
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
A handful of toasted pine nuts
Parmesan
Cream

Peel the squash, remove the seeds/inner part, chop into coarse cubes, and set aside. Peel the garlic cloves and crush them. Wash and chop the parsley into very fine pieces.


Remove the outermost leaves of the leek, and rinse the rest thoroughly. Slice lengthwise down the middle of the leek so that the leaves fan out and rinse again, making sure to get in between all the leaves (leeks can get very dirty). When the leek is fully clean, chop it into small pieces.

In a large pot, heat the olive oil, and when it's hot, add the garlic and the leek. Let cook a couple minutes and then add the squash. Slowly pour in the broth and then add the parsley, rosemary, thyme, salt, and pepper.


When the broth starts to boil, turn the heat down very low, cover the pot and let simmer about 45 minutes, stirring every so often.

Since I don't have a food processor or an immersion blender, I left the soup fairly chunky, but once the squash started to soften I bashed it up a bit with the spoon so that there weren't any super-large chunks.

When the squash is fully softened, grate the parmesan and stir it in.


In each bowl, place a few toasted pine nuts. Spoon in the soup and then pour a spoonful or so of cream over the top. Stir up and eat immediately.