Butternut Squash Bisque for the Soul?

Can you clock my age if I say that I actually purchased, with real cash money, Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul? Those books were everywhere and I was oddly delighted to find one aimed just at me: a teen. It seems utterly ridiculous some mumblemumbletwentysomething years later, to buy the trendy thing because it said teen, particularly when I didn’t even live in a community that read any Chicken Soup books. But I was an avid reader and oh so susceptible to impulse buying. Let’s just say it wasn’t for me, and truly unremarkable outside of the actual purchasing of the book. 

It might be that I just need SOUP to heal my soul. A beautiful and tasty variety of soups, all cooked with love in my favorite spot in my house: my kitchen. I love making soup! I started with broth bases soups in my early twenties, making a pretty killer tortilla soup from a bunch of Trader Joes ingredients. But I wanted to make cream soups using an immersion blender. 

The first year after I married my husband I subtly hinted at how great an immersion blender would be for Christmas. I didn’t get it. So I asked for one for the next three years. I didn’t get it. Then we had a baby and there were a million other things to ask for a few years. In 2021, as life with the baby settled and grew into comfortable chaos I knew I was ready. So I said, “I am buying an immersion blender for myself for Christmas so I can make delicious soups,” and would you believe that I didn’t have to because 6 years later my husband finally got the hint?

And he loved it! I used that blender to make myriad soups that warmed us up both body and soul through one of the toughest periods of our life. It gave me a life in so many ways to take on this cooking challenge and warm up dark times. But as winter turned to spring, I knew soup wasn’t as practical. So I waited, and I planned, for fall to come again.
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Here we are! And while our souls don’t need quite the same healing they did before, we are still the parents of a toddler. This fall and winter seasons I want to make 30 different soups to challenge myself and find new recipes. With fall here, winds whipping, and pumpkin patches and corn mazes thriving, I started off with Butternut Squash Bisque. Was it amazing? Yes! Not too sweet, full of fall flavor, and so warm and hearty! Here is the recipe:

Butternut Squash BisqueIngredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 small onions
• 3 cups frozen butternut squash chunks (I used 2 10oz bags)
• 5 cups chicken stock (I use bouillon and hot water)
• 1 1/2 cups cubed potatoes (I only needed 2 small)
• 1 teaspoon of paprika (please feel free to measure with your heart!)
• 1/2 cup whipping cream (I also think milk is a perfectly reasonable swap)
• Salt 
• Pepper

Directions

1. Melt butter in your saucepan then add the onions to soften. I like to add a bit of salt, pepper, and paprika here to cook in through the whole dish.
2. Add in the stock, squash, potatoes, and round out the paprika if you want. Part of the soul healing is in trusting your hear with the spices. Bring this all to a boil, then lower heat and cook until the veggies are soft. For me this took about 40 minutes. 
3. Once the veggies are soft I went to town with that immersion blender. I did this straight in the pot because I have a pot that can handle it. But you may want to do it in batches, or you can use a traditional blender. 
4. Get the soup back on the heat and add the cream or milk. Once it’s mixed taste test, do you want more salt and pepper? This is the time to add it!
5. Once it’s back up to temp, serve! 

I doubled this recipe and got 8–10 servings out of it. We ate some as leftovers and chucked the rest in the freezer for another day. No you will notice in my picture, I put chives, but they didn’t add anything to be honest and I wouldn’t add them again. I did serve with a chuck of french bread for dipping!