The key to a good squash soup is to bake the squash and sweet potatoes and white potatoes and to not rush them along. With pumpkin or squash, I will cut in half, get out the seeds and bake face down on a cookie sheet. I was once so inspired by the sound of sizzling of the cooking pumpkin and the journey the pumpkin made from jack-o-lantern to soup ingredient, I wrote a poem. It is also true that I find this soup rather melancholy, not sure why I feel that when I eat it or if I make it because I feel that way.  In any case, it’s my personal favorite soup of all time.

Ingredients:

• 2 onions chopped up small
• 2 cloves garlic smashed and minced
• 2 acorn squash or butternut or even a small pumpkin
• 4 sweet potatoes
• 2 white potatoes
• 5 carrots sliced
• 2 apples peeled, cored & sliced
• Maple syrup to taste
• Dash of cinnamon & cardamom
• 4 pats butter
• 1 Tablespoon any kind of flour
• Salt to taste
• 2 cups milk (I have used cow milk or soy or almond)

Directions:

Sauté the garlic & onions in olive oil until clear. Add the carrots & apples until soft.

Once the squash & potatoes are soft, let cool & peel and put innards into the pot with the other simmering veggies. Let it all meld.

Make a roux: melt the butter in a skillet. Add the flour (I use oat flour or spelt but most flours will do.) With a fork, mix in the butter & the flour until the flour is slightly brown. Add one cup milk and keep stirring, the milk will thicken right up. When it’s thick, add the other cup of milk.

When that thickens up again, add to the veggies. I use an in-pot mixer but you can also use a blender. Blend it all together until desired degree of smoothness.

Add the maple syrup, dash cinnamon & cardamom & salt to taste.

Serve warm with a good piece of bread. I like to garnish with a thick slice of dried pear. This year I dried lots of red pears with the skin on and it looks so pretty!