My Favorite Soup 🥣 and the Technique That Changed My Cooking Game
Plus, the recipe!
It’s tiiiiiiiiime!
It’s no secret that I’m a soup girlie. I love the warm bowl that you can count on when it’s cold and dark outside. It’s a meal in a bowl with most of the food groups to nourish and sustain you. The types of soup are vast, spanning nearly every country on earth, with ingredients cheap enough for most of us to afford, and options of leveled up ingredients when the time calls for it.
There is truly a soup for every occasion, and I can’t imagine a situation where soup wouldn’t make things better. I can think of the times when I’ve been extremely sad, almost crying my actual tears into a broth, and joyful times when I batch cooked soup on the weekends for weekday lunches. I have been poor enough to only afford oatmeal and soup out of the can for nourishment, and it really did get me through. Now that I have more financial security, I love making soup over the course of an hour or two on the weekend, or chopping up whatever we have left at the end of a week and throwing it into a pot for a fast weeknight dinner.
Seven years ago when I picked up Chrissy Teigen’s first cookbook, Cravings, I read it from cover to cover. It was like a food-focused memoir with cooking techniques and tips I applied to recipes that weren’t in the book at all. I laughed along with Chrissy’s easy conversational style, and loved cooking every recipe out of that book that actually had enough seasoning. Since then, I haven’t been able to shake my love of cookbooks, and my shelves are very close to overflowing already.
One of the first recipes I made out of Chrissy’s cookbook, which was admittedly very fussy, was her Butternut Squash Soup with Prosciutto Crisps. I was not convinced that the extra labor of browning the cubed squash in batches before simmering it in broth was worth it, but I usually cook a recipe “as is” from a cookbook first before tweaking it to my tastes. Well, the extra browning absolutely changed the game for me.
I don’t know if I had had butternut squash soup before then. If I did, it didn’t matter because it was not as memorable as this recipe. The caramelized browned bits of the squash permeated the whole soup once it was pureed together, and gave the dish a roundness of flavor so it wasn’t just one-note squash flavor. The aromatics (onions and garlic) and sage grounded the squash with earthiness, and the chicken broth lent some umami flavor. The creaminess from the blended squash and heavy cream created a perfect texture of a thick soup I loved eating. The first time I had it I’m pretty sure I cried.
I had never bothered to roast or caramelize anything in a soup before, and it’s a technique I have used in almost every soup since. I add veggies and alliums to the pot strategically (onions and carrots first, garlic last) to ensure that they all cook to the same consistency, and then I sauté them to a deep amber color, just before they burn. I do this with potato leek soup, chicken soup, and tomato soup alike.
Learning about the importance (with huge payoff) of roasting veggies for soup through making the butternut squash soup just changed the game for me in the kitchen. Without this recipe or the Cravings cookbook, I wouldn’t be the home cook I am today. It kicked off my interest in cooking and my desire to become a better cook.
So now when the weather gets cold, and the squashes start to ripen, I cannot wait to get butternut squash soup on the meal plan. It is a dish that I savor, and that reminds me of how much I’ve learned and grown in the kitchen.
Butternut Squash Soup with Prosciutto Crisps
My favorite soup takes a little bit of time and effort, but it is well worth it for the flavor you get from caramelizing the squash and blending the soup smooth at the end. Crisping the prosciutto is a step you can take or leave depending on your energy levels, and frying up the sage leaves I would also consider optional.
*If you don’t fry the sage leaves, then you’ll only need 4 fresh sage leaves for the soup itself.
2 small or 1 large butternut squash (about 3 ½ pounds), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for frying the sage
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
16 sage leaves
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
¾ cup heavy cream, plus a little more for serving
6 prosciutto crisps
Note: I’ve simplified the directions a little from how they were originally written.
For the soup:
In a large bowl, toss the squash, 1 tablespoon of the oil, the salt, and pepper.
In the deepest soup pot you have, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil over medium-high heat. Add half the squash, spread it out in one layer (or close to it) and let it sit there (don’t move it) until the underside gets nice and dark brown, 6 to 7 minutes. Using a spatula, lift the squash, scraping the bottom of the pot as much as possible, and try to flip the squash, but don’t worry if you don’t flip it all. Continue to cook the squash until the underside is browned, 5 to 6 minutes.
Add just enough of the broth to dissolve the sticky bits in the pot and dump it all into a big bowl. Repeat the cooking with the remaining squash and 2 tablespoons of oil. Leave this batch in the pot when it’s done.
Finely chop 4 of the sage leaves and add to the pot. Add the onion and garlic and cook, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen those yummy browned bits, until the onions are soft and lightly golden, 9 minutes. Add the previous batch of squash and the remaining broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer until the squash is tender and starting to fall apart, about 25 minutes.
Transfer the soup to a blender and blend until almost smooth; a few chunks are okay.
Do this in batches if necessary, leave the lid slightly askew to prevent a vacuum from forming and use a towel to protect your hand from hot splashes
Return the soup to the pot, add the cream, and simmer until warmed through, about 5 minutes.
Divide the soup among six bowls, swirl a spoonful of cream into each one, and top each bowl with a prosciutto crisp and two crispy sage leaves (directions to follow).
For the fried sage leaves:
While the soup is simmering, in a small saucepan, heat about 1/2 inch of olive oil over medium heat until shimmering-hot. Working in batches of a few leaves at a time, add the sage to the hot oil until they crisp up; it will only take 10 to 15 seconds. You’ll know they’re ready when they stop sizzling but are still a pretty, green, sage-y color. As each batch is done, remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
For the prosciutto crisps:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Arrange the prosciutto in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake until wrinkled and slightly shrunken, 11 to 13 minutes. (It will crisp as it cools.)
Things I Like
Kimchi has restored my gut health - thank goodness!
I’ve been really into LL Bean lately! Their clothing quality feels way better than anything you can get at Target. I’m planning on wearing a turtleneck with graphic tees a lot this winter!
A friend recently gifted my husband things to upgrade our audio system in our dining room so we now have a way to listen to cassette tapes! Before you gasp too hard, let me tell you how fun it has been to play tapes of bands our friends are in, AND we found the Barbie soundtrack at Electric Fetus on tape! I have a new thrifting mission unlocked: browsing for Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, and cassettes from my childhood.
May your week be gentle and may you eat well. 🌲🥣