For my choice in soup, I had decided to do a simple Butternut Squash soup. I have always enjoyed the taste butternut squash brings. With its natural sweetness and beautiful colour, soup made with butternut squash is very common. I had made it in school for one of my practical labs, but I figured it would be great to make it at home as well.
Recipe: 2 medium sized carrots, diced 1 stalks of celery, diced 1 large onion, diced 1 Garlic clove, puréed 375g Butternut squash , peeled, seeded, and diced 30g Unsalted butter or 30mL vegetable oil 750mL water or Chicken Stock Salt and white pepper to taste Pinch of nutmeg
I had decided to use water and vegetable oil as my ingredients to make this soup completely vegetarian without any animal products. I had chopped up the mirepoix into a simple small dice so that it requires less cooking time. I placed the mirepoix into a large pot and began to sweat them with oil. As the vegetables were sweating, I began to peel, deseed, and dice my squash. When my mirepoix became soft, I had added the squash and left it to sweat for a few minutes.
I then proceeded to add 3 cups of water to the pot and brought it up to a boil. I reduced the soup to a simmer and left it until the squash had become soft and tender. After cooking the soup completely, I used a hand blender that I had at home in order to purée the soup. When it comes to consistency, I added a little bit of water to adjust the thickness of the soup.
Sensory Evaluation The most noticeable characteristics when it comes to butternut squash soup are colour and taste. The soup comes out with a beautiful creamy orange colour almost as if there was actually cream added to the soup. When strained, the soup had a smooth, velvety texture. The natural sweetness of the butternut squash made the soup very pleasant to drink without it feeling very heavy and filling in the stomach. Overall, butternut squash soup is a very appealing and delicious soup.
Challenges & Improvements The most obvious challenge I faced was puréeing the soup without the use of a blender. My hand blender was quite small and made a mess as it would splatter occasionally. Another challenge I faced was the cuts of my vegetables. I felt that I should have cut them even smaller to bring out more flavour out of my mirepoix and to speed up the process of cooking. Although it was successful, I believe I could have done much better when it comes to making this soup.
Reflections This experience in making soups has taught me how such a small number of ingredients can bring out so much flavour. The simplicity of this soup has shown me that cooking isn't always as difficult as it may seem. It inspires me to show others this recipe and help expand their knowledge of cooking and erase that stereotype about the complexity of cooking.