Recipe: Cauliflower-Butternut Squash Soup

Here is a very simple soup recipe based on what I had in the refrigerator and wanted to use up. I cook like this a lot, enjoying the process of combining what I see that looks like it will provide a variety of color, taste, and texture, even smells!

Cauliflower-Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:

1 large head cauliflower
1/2 butternut squash (I only had this much - you could easily use the entire squash)
1 quart vegetable broth (here is where I quickly used the vegetable peelings in my freezer to make fresh broth)
2 cups milk (I used 2%)
1/2 teaspoon hot curry powder (to taste - your family might like a spicier soup)
1 teaspoon turmeric
Salt to taste (I used ~1/2 teaspoon)
1 kale leaf, chopped small
Plain unflavored yogurt

Directions:

Cut the cauliflower into florets, peel the squash, remove any seeds and strings from the inside, cut into 1-inch chunks and steam until soft (add this steaming liquid to the broth)

Make the vegetable broth as I have described in a past blog post (scroll down a bit), using the stove top if you don't have time to use the crock-pot, strain and use 1 quart for this soup, saving the rest for another day.

Add steamed cauliflower and squash to the strained broth. Carefully use either the immersion blender or a regular blender to make the soup smooth, remembering you are using a hot liquid that you do not want splashing in your face or around the room (the first couple of times using an immersion blender can be tricky!).

Add the milk and spices - whisk together. Reheat gently if needed.

Serve with a dollop of yogurt and sprinkle with chopped kale.  Easy, beautiful, and delicious! Yum, yum!!!

(Photo: Head of cauliflower and 1/2 large butternut squash)

(Photo: Cauliflower and butternut squash in the steamer)

(Photo: Curly kale, chopped small with chef's knife)

(Photo: Cauliflower-butternut squash soup with yogurt and kale garnish, salad, apples, and whole grain bread)

This is a recipe where kale is decoration and edible. :)

Here is the food blessing my husband and I read tonight before our meal. I loved the images of what we are eating, and I also learned about an author I had not known.

When we eat the good bread,

we are eating months of sunlight,

weeks of rain and snow from the sky,

richness out of the earth.

We should be great, each of us radiant,

full of music and full of stories.

Able to run the way clouds do, able to

dance like snow and the rain.

But nobody takes time to think that all he eats all

these things and that sun, rain,

snow are all a part of himself.

~~ Monica Shannon (1905-1965)

Winner of the Newberry Medal in 1935 for her book Dobry

Tonight we ate the good bread, cauliflower, butternut squash, kale and much more with gratitude, thinking about being full of music, running like the clouds with the wind, and dancing like the snow and the rain! 

And speaking of dancing, guess what I found out today? Our new dog likes dancing with me, standing on her back legs, holding hands with her front paws, as she mouthes my hands softly with her teeth (no broken skin thank goodness!). She also had a good time barking (when not gnawing on me) as we danced together to a really great Scottish dance tune by Cape Breton fiddler Natalie MacMaster. What a surprise to have her suddenly on her back legs joining me as I took a quick break from computer work this afternoon to dance around the dining room table when this tune was on Pandora! I laughed until tears were streaming down my face. :) Of course this new-found love of her dancing with me will not help me one bit to train her to not jump and lick my face whenever she feels enthusiastic about something! If we ever get a picture of her dancing, my husband will need to be 'on the scene' when the moment occurs.

Soup or dancing? Soup or dancing? Which shall I choose? Dancing, hands down, or paws up! :)

I hope you take the time to remember Monica Shannon's poem when you eat, thinking about the fact that all you eat is all of these things and more, and that the sun, rain, snow, plus the rich earth are now a part of you. I certainly enjoy envisioning that this array of movement, colors, smells, shapes, textures, temperature, and flavors are part of who I am. The image is beautiful, indeed it is radiant. :)

Cultivate your life - you are what you grow - inch by inch, row by row,

Diana Dyer, MS, RD