I love squash, but unfortunately, the kids don’t really like it much, so I’m on a mission to find ways to get them to like it. I originally found this recipe posted by a friend of a friend (you can see the original recipe here, but modified it as I made it. This is the modified recipe.

Serves 4-6, though in our family we can stretch it to 7 or 8.

Curried Apple-Ginger Butternut Squash Soup
2 TBL butter
1 Brown Onion, diced
1 Red Onion, diced
2 Cloves Garlic, minced
1/2″ Ginger, peeled and grated
Salt, Ground Coriander, and Pepper to taste
2 Rome Apples, cored and chopped*
3 TBL Curry Cooking Sauce or Paste**
6 c. Chicken Broth/Stock
1 Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded, chopped into 1″ pieces (3 1/2 pounds or 7-8 c. chopped)
1-2 Bay Leaves
1/2 c. Sour Cream or Cream to taste***
Chives, finely chopped for garnish

In large skillet or soup pot, sauté onions and garlic in butter until onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Add ginger, seasonings, and apples; cook until apples are soft, about 5 minutes. Add curry and stir to coat. Add squash, stock, and bay leaves. Bring to boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook about 40-45 minutes or until squash is soft. Turn off heat and add sour cream, stirring until mixed in. Working in batches (I had to do 2 batches), place in blender and blend until smooth. When all of the soup is velvety smooth, pour back into pot. Taste and add seasonings or curry or sour cream as desired, reheating and stirring to combine. When hot and to desired taste, ladle into bowls or cups, garnish with a little more sour cream (if desired) and stir to get the white swirls, sprinkle chives over the top, and serve.

And the younger kids loved it! Still waiting for the older kids and the Chef to taste, but the 3 year old likes it, so I’m counting it as a win. lol I think I’ll make it again. Just need to have the energy and motivation to deal with the prep of the squash. o.O

Makes a wonderful lunch. Youngest said it was quite warming.

ETA: Chef found the apple too much (which might mean he’d do better with cream or yogurt rather than sour cream), so I’m thinking of trying it with an apple with a flavor not quite as strong as Rome, like Golden Delicious. And we’re already kicking around some possible changes to reinvent it for his restaurant, like changing the curry to one of the various Latin chile pastes and maybe looking into a more Caribbean fruit than apple.

*The original recipe says to peel the apple, but I like the peels, and they get nice and soft and blend up just fine and add a bit more nutrition to the soup. Also, the original recipe didn’t specify Rome apples, but Romes have that lovely tangy-tart-sweet thing going on that I love.
**I accidently picked up the Cooking Sauce, but it worked out fine for our tastes; I used Patak’s Original Mild Curry Cooking Sauce.
***I found sour cream really made the soup smooth and helped bring out that tangy apple flavor.

We haven’t decided if we’re going to use this in the restaurant yet, but here’s Chef’s cold appetizer for his final reception.

A cold, creamy, spicy Avocado Soup with fried tortilla strings and a small bit of Pico de Gallo. We need to work on the heat level a little (it kicks in late and builds up, and this is before the soup has been chilled the full time it’s supposed to be, so I’m imagining the heat will be a little too high when it has been chilled the full 4 hours), but it’s otherwise a good soup.

And quite pretty too!

One of the things we’re already working on for the new restaurant is soups. We know we’re going to use a Minestrone we only minutely modified (and I’ll be happy to share at some point), and I’m working on a chowder. But one soup we’ve put together, and are still tinkering with a bit, is a loaded potato soup that started off as a meld of two other potato soups. Here’s the original recipe that I came up with by combining two other soups and needing to use a fennel bulb:

Chunky Potato, Ham, & Fennel Soup
3 med. potatoes, peeled, cut into small cubes, & cooked
2-3 TBL olive oil
3/4 c. red onion, finely chopped
1/2 lg fennel bulb, finely chopped
3 TBL all-purpose flour
salt and pepper to taste
3 c. chicken stock
1 c. milk
2 c. chopped/cubed ham
1 c. shredded kolby-jack cheese (or cheese of choice)

While potatoes drain, heat olive oil in large soup pot; add onion and fennel. Saute until soft. Add flour and stir until smooth; add pepper and stir for about 1 minute. Add potatoes, stock, and milk; stir well. Bring to boil and add ham. Simmer over low heat, stirring frequently, about 20 minutes. Pour into bowls and top with cheese.

Since this first incarnation, we’ve doubled the ingredients (just because that’s what we needed to do to cover our family); added sour cream, bacon, parsley, and scallions; changed the cheese to sharp cheddar; and changed the name (because this is planned as a SaxyK’s offering, no specific amounts are being listed).

Today, we’re trying the recipe in a crock pot and without the fennel. We have yet to have this soup the same way twice: first we had it like the above, then we had it with the changes just noted plus I had to play around with the milk/stock ratios and use water for some of the liquid because we didn’t have enough stock, today it’s going into the crock pot, and the Chef would like to try it with broccoli at some point. One of these days we’ll settle on the final recipe, although it’s likely to be a little different at the restaurant even then since my Chef is like most chefs and doesn’t measure much of anything.

As for the soup, which is now being called Loaded Potato and Ham Soup with Fennel, it’s a really nice, hardy soup. Perfect for cold winter days, low pantries (if you minus the fennel, though that’s not expensive at all if you go to a farmer’s market like we do, most everything is a staple for most families), and leftover holiday ham. And with the potatoes, ham, and veggies, it’s also pretty much a complete meal.

This was my first time playing with soup, and everyone loved it (especially the second version). Considering how I’m not really a natural like my Chef, I’m pretty pleased it came out so good.