Growing up I was never a big fan of the bright yellowish orange bowl of squash that inevitably made it onto the holiday table. It ranked right up there with yams and sweet potatoes – I never touched any of it!
After receiving a few acorn squash in my organic Bountiful Basket this week I decided to try my hand at making up my own recipe for the little buggers. I wanted something that wasn’t overpoweringly sweet and “squashy”, here’s what I came up with.
2 small Acorn Squash
2 small onions
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp fresh thyme (I used citrus thyme)
1 pinch of nutmeg
1 14.5 oz can of vegetable stock
1 chicken bullion cube
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp bacon drippings (the brown stuff)
Salt and Pepper to taste. Serve with sprinkle of Parmesan Cheese.
After seeding the squash, place on a roasting pan, drizzle with olive oil, top with chopped garlic and sliced onions. Cover with aluminum foil and place in a 300 degree oven for 90 minutes. Once cooked and cooled, scoop out the flesh of the squash and place in a bowl along with the roasted garlic and onions. Pour in the can of vegetable stock and sprinkle the crushed bullion cube over the squash mixture, with an immersion blender mix until smooth. Add the thyme, nutmeg, sour cream and bacon drippings, encorporate using the same process. Pour everything into a soup pan and heat to desired temperature, serve and enjoy!
HELPFUL HINT -you could substitute the acorn squash for something like butternut squash and the recipie should work just as well.
Because the bacon drippings make a huge difference in the outcome of this soup I just want to clarify a bit. When we save our drained bacon fat after making Sunday breakfast we scrape any of the little brown nuggets off the bottom of the pan. Once the mix cools, the white fat is on top and the brown flavorful bits settle to the bottom. These bits are what you want to use in this recipe!
The resulting soup is a slightly smokey, balanced, sweet yet savory bowl of deliciousness! If you find your particular squash is still too sweet you can double up on the brown bacon drippings – these awesome goodies made my soup marvelous!
Dirt On My Plate 