Butternut Squash and Green Apple Bisque
Personally I think it is a 5 star but as with all recipes, improvements can be made and welcomed.
Personally I think it is a 5 star but as with all recipes, improvements can be made and welcomed.
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- cold water to cover
- cinnamon grated to taste
- nutmeg grated to taste
- 0.5 cinnamon
- 2 cloves
- 6 black peppercorn
- 1 sprig fresh sage
- 2 medium onion medium diced
- 2 medium carrots sliced in rounds
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 3 apple peeled, cored, chopped
- 4 pound butternut squash see note; peeled, cored, diced
- 6 cloves garlic whole
- 0.5 cup light-brown sugar packed - see note
- Carbohydrate 73.0843729761716 g
- Cholesterol 7.62578125327025 mg
- Fat 7.22107493321948 g
- Fiber 9.24700878248645 g
- Protein 3.66286739892156 g
- Saturated Fat 2.32255727641865 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (382g)
- Sodium 363.395491615568 mg
- Sugar 63.8373641936851 g
- Trans Fat 0.467256956377374 g
- Calories 341 calories
Step-by-step
- Wrap spices in in a cheesecloth, tie with string and attach to handle of soup pot. This allows for easy removal of spices at end of cooking process.
- Sweat onion, carrot, celery and garlic in butter and canola oil until onion is wilted but not colored. Add apple, squash, brown sugar and salt. Add water to almost cover vegetables. Bring to full boil; reduce heat to a steady simmer.
- After 20- 30 minutes of gentle simmering, check carrot and squash for softness. Puree the soup when carrots are soft like butter to the core. Soup can be blended with a ricer, blender or immersion blender (for a more velvety soup, pass though a fine mesh chinois or strainer).
- Check seasoning (salt and pepper). Add grounded cinnamon and grated nutmeg to taste.
- Garnish with a fried sage leaf (sage leaf fried in hot olive oil for few seconds) and a drizzle of heavy cream.
- Note: Pumpkin or Hubbard squash may be substituted.
- Start with a 1/2 cup of light brown sugar. After puree, more can be added to desired likeness.
Processing fibrous winter squash into a silky soup demands proper equipment management, because an underpowered blender will leave gritty particulate suspended in the liquid. Blending hot liquids creates internal pressure hazards that require venting the lid or utilizing an immersion blender directly in the pot. Passing the purée through a fine-mesh chinois removes stubborn cellulose strands that escape standard blades.
- Sweat the aromatics over medium-low heat until translucent without taking on any browned color, preserving the pale orange hue of the finished bisque.
- Tie whole cloves, peppercorns, and cinnamon into a cheesecloth sachet secured to the pot handle to extract aromatics cleanly without fishing out loose debris later.
- Test the carrot and squash pieces for complete tenderness by piercing the center with a paring knife before initiating the blending phase.
- Substitute pumpkin or Hubbard squash at a one-to-one ratio by weight if butternut squash is unavailable, adjusting the brown sugar incrementally since sugar levels vary naturally across squash varieties.
Achieving a glossy finish relies on passing the blended mixture through a fine strainer while hot. Correct seasoning adjustments should occur only after the final purée stage when the starches have fully dispersed.
