Sunday Photo Essay: Butternut Squash Soup

It’s the time of year I start yearning for soup and chili, feel the need to stand in my kitchen and create things. Tomorrow is the first day of fall, and I shall greet it with the best possible outlook, knowing it will also hand us our first plowable snow, and keenly aware our first frost will come soon, even though we still have green tomatoes on the vine. And our firewood was delivered this afternoon.

Imagine, if you will, an afternoon of Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris duets while you watch me make soup, as that was my soundtrack to a perfectly satisfying afternoon in the kitchen. (Scroll to the bottom of the post and click the link now for a more authentic and immersive experience, and then come on back up here.)

Dealing with a butternut squash can be challenging. I could do this myself. But when there is a chef hanging around with nothing to do….

I love the flower vase my dear friend Bett gave me years ago, and my vintage mixing bowls, and my vintage tablecloth.

I have a love-hate relationship with leeks, which are slippery and difficult to chop. The Chef will roll his eyes, and I don’t care.

I used a pretty purple carrot to add color and maybe a little more flavor to the soup; it has a bright orange center—you can see it back there hiding behind the bothersome leek.

I harvested these fragrant chives from the container garden on our deck.

I used two cups of whole milk, plus a half cup of almond-coconut ‘milk’ for flavor. Plus, I ran out of regular milk.

Blend until silky, went the recipe.

Finished soup: spicy, fragrant, nourishing. It’ll go in my lunch box this week.

kitchen still life with butternut squash

Now, go on and finish listening to Mark and Emmylou. And have a beautiful first week of fall.

4 thoughts on “Sunday Photo Essay: Butternut Squash Soup”

I made squash too! With just the 2 of us I was debating on what to make for dinner – squash soup it is!! (I mentioned snow to Sparky this morning and he poo-pooed me stating there are at least 3 more months until we get any snow… I think he is mistaken!!