You know eating bright, colorful farm stand food is good for your body. Hot soup is good for your soul, especially as the days grow darker earlier and crisper air arrives. You also need a good use for all of those seasonal apples you just bought at the farm stand. Give my farm stand butternut squash and apple soup recipe a try!
Pick up a butternut squash while you’re there, and you’re most of the way to a delicious, fulfilling soup.
I make this soup every week during late summer and early Fall. The hardest part is slicing the skin off the butternut squash. The most fun part is using a handheld immersion blender to puree the soup. Yes, you could use a food processor or even a standard blender; it is just easiest to use the handheld.
Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
Total time: 1 hour
Need: large pot, long spoon, sharp knife, cutting surface, blender
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash, peeled and seeds removed
1 onion
1 large apple or 2 small apples, peeled
2 small cloves of garlic
2-3 sage leaves
1 bay leaf
12 cups of broth/bouillon
Olive oil
Sea salt to flavor
1) Peel, remove the seeds and chop butternut squash into small pieces about the size of a large blueberry. Chop the peeled onion, too.
2) Use a tall pot if you are going to use your immersion blender later. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Saute butternut squash, onion, garlic, and bay leaf in the olive oil. Mix every few minutes.
I grow and dry my own bay leaves.
3) A little browning is good for flavor. As the veggies start to brown, add enough water to keep them from burning.
4) When the squash is softened and starting to get mushy, add the chopped apple. Saute for a few minutes, mixing so nothing burns. Add a little water to ensure it won’t burn.
5) Add sage and 12 cups of water and bouillon. As a shortcut, forget the water and bouillon, just add prepacked soup broth. Use chicken stock/bouillon if you are not a vegan. Use vegetable stock if you are.
Here’s the bouillon I use (in 50% of my dishes). You can click the picture below to pick up some on Amazon. One link is for chicken bouillon. The other link is for vegan bouillon.
As an Amazon Associate, I earn for qualifying purchases.
6) Boil the soup for about 20 minutes, mix occasionally, until the apples are mushy. The soup should cook down to about 75% of the broth you added. Makes the flavor richer.
7) Taste the soup. Add a teaspoon of salt if you need a little flavor boost. Mix. Boil. Taste again.
8) Remove the sage and bay leaf.
9) When the apples are soft and the flavor is good, use your immersion blender to puree the soup smooth. It takes a few minutes. Watch your clothes. It splatters. If you need to use a food processor or standard blender to puree the soup, try to do it in smaller batches so you don’t make a mess. Serve with a little sprig of sage or toasted squash seeds as garnish.
are really starting to pop up in shops, and it’s wonderful! They are all-natural, last for 6-9 months and then biodegrade. Mine will go into the compost bin someday. Google trends shows searches for “swedish dishcloth” started to increase in June 2016. I first saw them in the gift shop at a nature center in Cape Cod. My first one is still going strong after three months. You can machine wash them, but I just put mine in the dishwasher sometimes. They don’t stink like sponges. I’m going to do a whole article on these because I use and love them. In the meantime, 
what all the fuss is about. You don’t need a 10-pack, 
and spread 
in early Autumn? This year, let the kids do it.
to spread with abandon.
or garden plots. Sounds like fun to me, and I’m a certified grown up. Although, to clarify, if you don’t want the entire bag of seed dumped in one spot, you’ll have to guide and oversee. Or give out the seeds in little scoops.
featured in this farmstand5.