Roasted Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

I am a serious soup lover.  A hot bowl of soup on a cold winter night is one of my favorite comfort foods.  A smooth creamy soup can be just the thing to bring warmth and comfort, but those calories can get a little out of hand.  I have just the fix, a rich creamy soup with no dairy and very little added fat.  Roasted butternut squash, one of my favorite winter vegetables makes a wonderful creamy soup that your whole family will enjoy.

Ingredients:

2 Butternut Squash halved and seeded

1 Apple pealed cored and diced

1 Pear pealed cored and diced

2 Cloves of Garlic chopped

1/4 cup of Calvados (apple brandy) optional

1/2 a medium onion chopped

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

8 cups of vegetable stock  or chicken stock (Click for my stock recipes)

1 tbsp Good Olive Oil

2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 375 and sprinkle the squash with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  Roast the squash for 45 minutes to an hour until slightly browned and fork tender.  Allow to cool so it can be handled.

Heat enough olive oil to coat the bottom of a stock pot over medium heat.  Add onions, pear, apple, garlic and a tsp of salt.  Stir until it slightly caramelizes.  Deglaze the pot with calvados or a little vegetable stock.  Add vegetable stock and simmer until the apple and pear are tender.  Scoop the butternut squash out of the skin and into the pot.  Simmer for about 15 min.  Blend the soup in the pot with an immersion blender (Kitchen Aid makes a good stainless steel model that comes with a little food processor).  When the soup is smooth stir in the balsamic vinegar, you can adjust the consistency by adding more stock if it is too thick, we want a creamy soup not something akin to babyfood.  Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

If you make this with chicken stock you have a totally vegan soup and even with chicken stock it is very healthy.  It is a soup that uses local winter product, all of the produce for the stock and soup I obtained from Nova Scotia providers.

Variation

For those of you like my buddy Sairam (a faithful vegetarian follower and good friend) who love to feel the spice, here is a simple addition to kick it up a notch.

When roasting your squash roast off one pablano pepper.  Let it cool in an air tight container to make pealing easier.  Peel and seed the pepper when cool and add to the soup before blending.  If you are cautious about spice add it in a quarter at a time blend and taste.  This adds a very nice level of heat to the soup.

Special Thanks to my Providers

Active Live Farms for the Chicken for my Chicken Stock and the Garlic

Noggins Corner Farm for all of the wonderful Fruit and Vegetables

And as always the Halifax Seaport Market for giving me a place to find local product.

Local product also pictured

Oatmeal Bread from Aziz Best Bakery obtained at the Halifax Seaport Market

Cranberry Cheddar from Fox Hill Cheese 

Brockville Ontario Restaurant Tour

It has been a while since I have put up a post.  I spend the holiday season in Brockville and Kingston Ontario.  Unfortunately it was the best of times as my Uncle is very ill and we have found out he is not going to make it.  This is a very trying time for us all, but I would like to discuss something positive that I have taken away from this. 

I would like to thank some of the restaurateurs of Brockville for providing some great comfort food in a warm welcoming environment.  I enjoy good food cooked with love and pride and the people from Nan’s Kitchen, Tin Cap Restaurant, Jon’s Restaurant Luna’s Pizza and Bud’s On the Bay just that.  When traveling the first thing we run into are franchise restaurants because they have prime locations but if you go five minutes down the road you can find local gems serve home cooked food instead of the factory made cookie cuter products found in most chain restaurants.  All of the meals were good but I am going to discuss my two favorite places.

We visited Nan’s Kitchen twice the first time with 9 people.  For a small diner I was surprised how easily they handled the 9 of us who of course all wanted to sit together.  Our waitress had a lot of character in addition to being helpful and professional she gave a sense of being at home. (I got scolded for having my cell phone on my napkin and my niece was told that she could not have iced tea for breakfastJ).  That brought some much needed laughter to the table.  The food was amazing; the home cooked baked beans served at breakfast made the trip all on their own.  Between the 9 of us we ordered a good cross section of the menu, three of my family are vegetarian and the best review was all of the empty plates going back to the kitchen.  Nan’s kitchen is well worth the visit.

I have eaten at Bud’s On the Bay a number of times over the last few years and I can tell you this last trip was the best food I have had there by far.  Not only have they renovated the front of house but they have redone the menu.  I had three meals there and found that there was attention to detail in the flavor combinations, the food was prepared very professionally and the service was prompt and friendly.  What makes the experience at Bud’s is the little touches in all of the dishes.  The marinade on the portabella mushroom sandwich, the touch of honey mustard and fresh basil in the breakfast club, perfectly poached eggs in the Eggs Benedict and the best fried potatoes I have had in a long time.  It will take several more visits to taste all of the dishes I am interested in at Bud’s. 

With the boom of smart phones there are a number of apps that will help you find these gems.  Urban Spoon is a great app but there are several others even one tailored to vegetarians (Veg out).  I encourage you to take the time to find the local gems when you travel, you won’t regret it. 

Satisfaction Feast - A Healthy Taste Treat

I was in the mood for something healthy and homemade last night so I went a little vegetarian restaurant that I have been going to for years.  Satisfaction Feast http://www.satisfaction-feast.com/ has been serving excellent vegetarian food in Halifax for over 20 years.  They follow the teachings of Sri Chinmoy and are dedicated to "fostering a brighter and happier future of oneness and harmony".  They express this philosophy through their food and their hospitality.  The atmosphere is very relaxing and the staff is friendly and open.  I don’t hold to any religious or philosophical dictate, I consider myself a happy wanderer through the world of spirituality open to all views.  The people at Satisfaction Feast are not evangelical in nature which is a nice change, their view as repressed through their kindness and the love shown in their food.  Eating there adds to my wanderings.

As usual the food my guest and I selected was fresh and tasty.  We started with appetizers of Fried Samosa and Hummus and Pita.  The Samosa was crisp and filled with and abundance of mashed bean and potatoes seasoned with flavorful spices and fresh herbs.  It was served with chutney, this time it was spicy tomato chutney but I have had different chutneys each time.  The pita was soft and warm and the hummus had a nice amount of garlic but could have used a little lemon and fresh herb to balance the flavor.

For mains we had a bowl of spicy borscht.  It has julienned beat in a tomato and beet broth which had a nice level of spice.  It was finished with a nice dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of dill. If you are spice averse you should notify your server, the food here is flavored with an Indian flair and some dishes are a little spicy.  I had the cup of soup so I could try their ‘Root Burger’.  I think vegetarians need some help naming their food but trust me this burger was excellent.  It had a base of sweet potatoes and brown rice and contained grated carrots and there was a nice level of spice balanced with fresh herbs.  It was served on a fresh whole grain bun with bib lettuce and tomato.  I also had a soy based mayo which I found very nice.  The patty was homemade and I would go back in a heart beat for another one.

For dessert, and trust me if you go for nothing else go for this, we enjoyed one of their homemade peanut butter balls.  They should be served with a warning label because they are very habit forming.  They peanut butter is natural and chunky, the sweetness is well balanced with the peanut flavor and it is dipped in a dark chocolate coating.  It is the best peanut butter ball I have ever had. 

I enjoy homemade vegetarian food.  When done well it is not only healthy but flavorful.  I have experimented with vegetarian food at home and have good friends who are vegetarian.  Some of them are amazing cooks who are dedicated to fresh flavorful food and their cooking is full of love.  Others make eating a test of courage and though their food is healthy it will not make you happy.  I will post vegetarian recipes from time to time on my blog.  I search different cultures for their traditional non meat meals and this is what I enjoy.  I will share this with you and I beleive you will enjoy it as well.

A word of warning, not all vegetarian food is healthy.  Satisfaction Feast does have some soy bacon and a factory vegi burger on the menu.  I would stay clear of those and enjoy their amazing homemade options.  Factory produced meat analogs can be filled with trans fats, salt and are so over processed that in my opinion they are not fit for human consumption.  If you want to be vegetarian I respect and admire that, but try to do it using the abundance of vegetarian tradition found around the world and try to stay clear of the North American factory food.  From a health standpoint you are better off with good farm fresh meat than plastic meat substitutes.

As for Satisfaction Feast, it is a must try for all foodies.