Spicy Butternut Squash Soup with Lemon-Maple Brussels Sprouts
Most butternut squash soups are a little sweet for me. Honestly, I’ve got a major sweet tooth but some things, like my soups, I want to be more on the savory side. So, this soup is still sweet of course, but the jalapeño and cooking sherry (or white wine) create some interesting flavors that help offset the sweetness. And, while I don’t generally cook with oil, I added a tiny drizzle of truffle oil before serving – YUM. Since I was a little heavy-handed with the jalapeño (by my definition – remember, I’m a spice wimp), I dumped my Lemon-Maple Brussels Sprouts in the soup to offset the heat. Delicious! In the future I will leave the seeds out of the jalapeño – this time I used half of the seeds and the soup was really spicy.
- 1 pound cubed butternut squash
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 jalapeno minced
- 2 medium yukon gold or red potatoes peeled and diced small
- 3 cups vegetable broth I like Imagine No-Chicken Broth, low-sodium
- 1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 3 TBS cooking sherry or sweet white wine
- 1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk I used almond
- salt and pepper to taste
- truffle oil drizzle optional
- In large pot, saute onion until soft, adding small amounts of broth or water as it sticks.
- Add garlic, jalapeño, sherry/wine and nutmeg to onion and cook about 2 minutes
- Add squash, potato and vegetable broth to pot, bring to a boil, and lower heat to simmer partially covered about 20 minutes or until squash and potatoes are soft.
- Transfer soup to blender along with non-dairy milk and blend until smooth.
- Pour blended soup back into pot, heat until warmed through if it cooled off from milk, season with salt and pepper. Serve and drizzle with a tiny bit of truffle oil if desired. This soup is delicious with the Lemon-Maple Brussels Sprouts (click link in blog entry above, or find in Recipes).
