Winter Squash and Goat Cheese Soup

 

Fall is soup and pumpkin time, and here’s a delicious recipe for any of those winter squash available locally. The simplest way to precook these is in a crockpot. Grease the crockpot with olive oil spray, drop the squash in whole and cook for an hour or two.

The skin softens and is easy to cut, remove pulp and seeds and scoop the flesh from the skin.

This soup features sautéed vegetables, curry seasoning and the squash flesh cooked in broth. After simmering for 30 minutes, the soup is blended with 4 ounce goat cheese and milk, then cooked just enough to heat. (Cook to 165 F.)

Adjust the milk volume in proportion to the size of the 

Pumpkin and Goat Cheese Soup

(6 Cups)

Cook the squash in the crockpot or roast. To roast, quarter pumpkin, removing pulp and seeds.  Spray with oil.  Roast at 425 F. for 45 minutes.
1 pie pumpkin
Olive oil spray
Remove peel and dice roasted pumpkin.

In a large saucepan, sauté onion, fennel and celery in olive oil 3 minutes.
1 small onion, diced
2 tablespoon fennel, diced
2 tablespoon celery stalks and leaves, diced
2 tablespoon olive oil

Stir in curry powder and sauté 1 minute.
1 tablespoon curry powder

Add ginger, orange juice, zest and stock.
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
Juice and zest from 1 orange
3 cups low sodium chicken stock (GMO free)
Add roasted pumpkin.  Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer 30 minutes.

Stir in milks, goat cheese, salt and seasoning.  Simmer 5 minutes.  Carefully add 3 cups of soup to a blender at a time.  Remove center piece of blender lid.  Cover lid and open center with a cloth and blend until smooth.  Return blended soup to saucepan and simmer until hot but not boiling.
1 cup skim milk
1/2 cup evaporated skim milk
4 ounce goat cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt