cook: autumn soup

It's the month for thanksgiving. I love the herbs that go into the dressing or stuffing of turkey: sage, thyme, and rosemary. However, I hadn't bought the bird yet though I did have two small squashes on my counter: an acorn and a butternut squash. I cut up the squash and boiled in a box of chicken bone broth for 40 minutes at which point the squash softened enough to puree. I chopped a medium yellow onion and started sautéing it in butter for 5 minutes. 

 

Scrounging in the refrigerator bin, I found half an orange, celery and a bell pepper and then remembered I wanted to add garlic too to the onions. I zested the orange half and went out to my herb box to snip thyme and sage. After chopping the additional vegetables and herbs, I remembered to go to Cecilia's pot of rosemary to add to the herb mixture.

The broth was quite muddy but delicious. There is a lot more savory and meaty flavor in bone broth than in just chicken stock. After adding the rest of the vegetables and herbs to the sautéing onions for a good 6 minutes, I added the reserved bone broth and the pitcher of boiled and pureed squashes and let it simmer the afternoon away for a few hours.

I added the zest and the juice of the orange at the end of the simmering while the soup was still piping hot. I didn't puree the soup again as I wanted to see the colorful flotsam and jetsam of aromatics and vegetables and herbs and ate a bowl before decanting into containers to eat for the week as a warming snack.