I hope you had a wonderful weekend. Last year a group of us took on a 21 day Vegan Challenge. While I personally am not ready to gift up animal products it certainly was informative and gave me pause to rethink my meat consumption. As Thomas Jefferson said, I'd like to think of meat as more of a "condiment for the vegetables". In that spirit here's my recipe for the easiest and tastiest soup on the planet. Disclaimer-I used some of my homemade chicken stock that I always have on hand (waste not, want not) but you can easily use vegetable stock to make this 100% Vegetarian. Also, I tend to just throw ingredients in the soup pot without measuring so I'm going to share the steps with you and you can use your best judgement. I have to apologize in advance because this was so tasty that we gobbled it up before I could snap a picture. Just imagine a beautiful bowl of steaming, yellow/orange, creamy goodness!
CREAMY ROASTED BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
1. Take butternut squash pieces, drizzle with olive oil and salt and roast in the oven at 375 degrees until soft. I used pre-cut pieces from Costco but you can either take a whole squash and peel it or save yourself the work and just cut one in half, scoop out the seeds and drizzle the cavity with oil. It's all eventually going to get blended together so don't spend hours slicing up pieces of squash. Sure, a purist would want all possible corners roasted to get that yummy, natural sweetness but lets be honest here. I have knitting to work on and a toddler and can't spare the time for peeling veggies.
2. Take a head of garlic, chop off the top, drizzle with olive oil, wrap it in foil and pop it in the oven for a good roasting.
3. Take your large pot and put in 1 TB butter and 1 TB olive oil and saute 1/2 a chopped yellow onion. Add the roasted squash and 5 gloves of the roasted garlic. Add a little water, some stock and a can of coconut milk. I use enough liquid to cover things plus a little extra for good measure. This isn't a pool party but think a nice soak in the shallow end. Simmer the snot out of it. Just before eating I took a few cups out to puree in the blender. It makes things just a little thicker and creamier but I don't like to blend the entire pot because I like more texture. But to each there own. Top with some homemade croutons and pair with a simple salad. The soup is very rich and creamy so you will not want a heavy side dish. Enjoy!
One of my fun stunts for the year is to wear more accessories. Now this will never be a "What I Wore" blog because I don't consider myself to be an incredibly fashionable person and it's not really my thing. But accessories are something I can get behind. It's the cheapest way to jazz up an outfit and to add color to your day. My Mom gave me this pin and isn't it fun!? I think this can easily be replicated and I'm already cooking up a craft/tea party in my head. Since the color for 2012 is Tangerine Tango I'm trying to wear just a little more orange. This is an antique scarf from a dear friend. I love the different shades of orange and the hidden, butterfly surprise!
Wishing you a lovely Monday darlings.
Bussi, Bussi!
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