Beautiful soup!

I love soup.  If I had to pick a last meal I would pick soup and I'd have to make it myself.  I'm not a fan of canned soup or most soups in a restaurant.  They generally don't excite me-even though I want them to be splendiferous.  When I order a tomato-basil soup I want it to be great-as great as the one I make or better even!

Jason's Deli makes a good soup but we don't have one around here.  We had one in Little Rock when we lived there and used to go after church and have soup, sandwiches, and salads.  I found one in Denver, Colorado when I needed to order chicken noodle soup for my 19-year-old son who was sick- I sent him a delivery person with soup.  I couldn't be there so this was the next best thing.  It's all about the soup.

Soup, glorious soup.  I found a keeper as I scanned through my very special copy of Dinner; A love story by Jenny Rosenstrach. I found myself standing in my kitchen lazily paging through looking and reading many of Jenny's stories (again) when I came upon this soup and I had all the ingredients (Love that!) + I'm under the weather so perfectly in need of a bowl of quality soup.

{Jenny's photo}

Butternut Squash Soup with apples (101-102)

1 medium onion, chopped 
few glugs of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
leaves from 1 sprig fresh thyme
1 T. curry powder (optional)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
1 butternut squash, peeled, halved, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes. (about 4 1/2 cups cubes)
2 apples (Fuji, Macintosh, or Cortland preferred., but just about any except Red Delicious will work.)
3 1/2 cups or more of chicken broth (or vegetable broth-which is what I used)
Garnishes:  Chopped walnuts, chopped chives, sour cream

In a Dutch oven or a large stockpot, brown the onion in oil until wilted, about 3 minutes.  Add salt and pepper, thyme, curry powder and cayenne.  Stir in the squash and apples, then add enough broth to cover it all by about a half inch.  Bring to a boil and then simmer uncovered for 30 minutes-checking and adding water or broth every 10 minutes or so-until the squash is tender.  Turn off the heat and puree with a handheld immersion blender or in batches in the blender (see warning about spinning hot liquid), adding more water or broth until it reaches desired consistency.  Serve with toppings.  

Hopefully by now everyone has an immersion blender because they are one of the greatest kitchen tools ever invented!  Mine is a Braun and I've had it for about 14 years and it is still going strong.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads; Weekend Cooking meme.  Click her link to find many other food-related posts.  Maybe others are talking about their deep love of soup as well.