Simple Squash Soup and a Giveaway!
What better way to ring in the new year than with a giveaway? My first Sly Rooster giveaway and I couldn’t be more excited.
Super Food Cards are a cooking class on a card–or more specifically, eight laminated, user-friendly cards–that are focused on the foods that fuel your body. Each card includes an explanation of why the category is important (think Vegetables, Beans, Grains, Greens, Nuts & Seeds, Fruit, Stocks and Protein); preparation charts and tips; along with plenty of straightforward recipes to get you started.
Super Food Cards
Ironically, getting started proved to be my challenge. I was immediately tempted by Balsamic Salmon, with its inclusion of fresh grapefruit juice, and then the savory Quinoa Muffins with manchego cheese, scallions and garlic caught my eye. In the end, due to the fact that I am cooking on a dreary, gray Saturday, complete with freezing rain, and the realization that I seem to start each new year with a soup, I landed on the Simple Squash Soup.
The Super Food Card on Vegetables beautifully illustrates how to handle a whole butternut squash. What could be a daunting process is broken down into four simple steps which should encourage you to go ahead and buy the whole squash as opposed to the pre-packaged cubes. With the pre-packaged cubes, what you gain in convenience you lose in freshness and value. The Super Food Card goes on to offer timing on cooking your squash whole or sliced, steamed, roasted, sautéed or grilled, with specific instructions for each method. Storage recommendations for each vegetable are featured along with ten recipes ranging from Shiitake Crisps and Cauliflower Poppers to Carrot Beet Juice and the Simple Squash Soup.
What I like about this soup is that it comes together in about 45 minutes and uses ingredients that you surely have on hand, especially once you realize that you can keep your butternut squash for weeks in a cool, dry, dark place, other than the refrigerator. The taste is pure butternut squash with a subtle depth provided by the nutmeg and sherry. The crumbled goat cheese is the perfect finishing touch. Give this recipe a try and at the same time, enter to win your very own set of Super Food Cards.
To enter the contest, just leave a comment on this post or any past post/recipe on Sly Rooster: Creating Comfortable Cooks. You can let me know why you want to start off 2015 with a healthy boost or which recipes you have tried and what has or hasn’t worked for you. You can enter as many times as you’d like (each comment is an individual entry) and one winner will be randomly selected at noon on January 11, 2015.
If you’d like to purchase a set of Super Food Cards for yourself or as a gift for a friend who is focused on good health and home-cooking in 2015, please visit http://www.nourishschools.com/superfoodcards/ or click here: Super Food Cards. Here’s to a happy and healthy new year!
Simple Squash Soup
- 1 Tbls olive oil
- 1 carrot, peeled and chopped
- 1 celery stalk, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 c butternut squash
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 4 c chicken stock
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 3 Tbls dry sherry
- crumbled goat cheese
- Heat olive oil in a large stock pot.
- Add carrot, celery, onion and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent, 3-5 minutes.
- Stir in butternut squash, nutmeg, chicken stock, salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until squash is fork-tender, about 30 minutes.
- Stir in dry sherry and then let soup cool slightly.
- Puree in batches in a blender or use an immersion blender.
- Reheat soup and garnish each bowl with 1-2 Tbls of crumbled goat cheese before serving.