Butternut Squash Soup with Bacon & Caramelized Onions

A beautiful and flavorful soup for a main entr̩e or first course! Not to mention a great way to get your beta carotene! Serves 4 Р6.

Ingredients

1 butternut squash about 1 or 1 1/2 lbs.
1 – 12 oz. bag of center cut bacon divided
1 medium yellow onion sliced
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 – 15 oz. can of chicken broth
Dash of nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt
Sour Cream Mixture
3 tablespoons of light sour cream
1 tablespoon of 2% milk

Technique

Cut butternut squash in half lengthwise. Remove seeds and pulp from middle of squash. Place in cake pan flesh side down and fill with water a quarter of the way up the squash.  Cover with foil and bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until fork tender.  Be careful when removing foil because hot steam will be released. When squash is cool enough to handle, remove from pan and scoop out flesh. In a skillet add half of the bacon and sauté until crispy. Add onions and sugar and sauté until caramelized. Remove onions and bacon and place in blender. Add squash and chicken broth and blend to a smooth consistency. If contents of blender are near the top blend in batches. Transfer to a large pot and simmer for 15 minutes on low heat stirring often. Take the remaining bacon and cut into small pieces and sauté over medium high heat until crispy. Remove and place on a paper towel to remove any excess grease. Ladle soup into bowls and use the diced bacon for garnish as well as the sour cream mixture.

For sour cream mixture, mix all ingredients and place in a squirt bottle for decorating as shown above. Or simply add a dollop of sour cream.

Suggested Beverage

Try  Chateau de Fontenille Grand Vin de Bordeaux Vintage (France), Solaire Chardonnay by Robert Mondavi (Santa Lucia Highlands) or Franciscan Chardonnay (Napa Valley, California).

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.