Recipe: Creamy Squash or Pumpkin Soup
From the Vitality Food Feature ‘A MEAT-FREE HOLIDAY MENU‘.
Squashes and pumpkins make a wonderful base for a soup, especially during the winter season. Paired with carrots, these vegetables give the soup a sweet, satisfying flavour that is enriched with the addition of a good quality olive oil.
(Makes 6-8 servings)
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 4 cups butternut squash or pumpkin, peeled and diced into ½ inch pieces
- 2 large carrots grated
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger (1 inch piece)
- 8 cups vegetable stock
- ¼ tsp grated orange zest
- ¼ cup parsley, chopped
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1) Heat oil over medium heat in a large pot. Sauté the squash, carrots, onion, and ginger for 2-3 minutes or until lightly browned.
2) Add stock and orange zest. Bring to a boil.
3) Lower to a simmer and cook uncovered for 35 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
4) Add parsley, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
5) Purée the soup in a food processor or with a handheld immersion blender until smooth and creamy. Garnish with extra parsley sprigs.
Nettie Cronish
Nettie Cronish is a vegetarian and organic foods chef, culinary instructor and cookbook author. She is the author of 3 cookbooks and co-author of another 3 cookbooks: Nourish: Whole Food Recipes featuring Seeds, Nuts and Beans, Flex Appeal featuring a healthy dinner on the table in 30 minutes, Everyday Flexitarian: Recipes for Vegetarians & Meat Lovers Alike, New Vegetarian Basics, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Being Vegetarian in Canada and Nettie’s Vegetarian Kitchen. Her 7th cookbook, Fair Trade Ingredients will be published Spring 2021. For the past 25 years, Nettie has been the resident culinary instructor at The Big Carrot Natural Foods store in Toronto, Canada. For the vegetarian and flexitarian curious, she also gives classes at Nella Cucina, President’s Choice Cooking School (Loblaw’s), The Loft at Longo’s, the LCBO and Nature’s Emporium. She has taught at George Brown College, Calphalon Culinary Centre, Dish Cooking School and Great Cooks on Eight. Nettie also teaches corporate cooking classes and works with dieticians. Nettie develops and tests recipes for companies and has written articles that have appeared in Chatelaine Magazine, Canadian Living, Food & Drink, Homemakers, Natural Health, Alive Magazine, Vitality, The Globe & Mail and Toronto Star. Nettie’s cooking philosophy is that “delicious is a pre-requisite for healthy”. As a busy mother of three, she has extensive experience getting dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes. Nettie Cronish is the past Chair of the Women’s Culinary Network, and a past board member at Fairtrade Canada.
