We’ve had some nice cool weather lately…good for soup. By “cool” I mean in the 60’s. If you’re not in southern California and the temperatures are in the 20’s or 30’s, you’re probably rolling your eyes right now. But I can guarantee that this soup will warm up your tummy and your disposition too!
I roasted some butternut squash with rosemary for another recipe yesterday and had some of it left over. I also had some roasted Idaho baby Dutch potatoes left over from supper last night. With the perfect weather for soup, I decided to put together a pot of deliciousness for lunch, using a package of sausages that I had in the fridge. One of my favorite new discoveries is a company called Saag’s from San Leandro, CA (in the Bay Area) who make outstanding natural sausages in various flavors. This week I bought Smoked Chicken Sausage with Basil, Herbs & Cracked Pepper…they’re pork free, gluten free, have no MSG aadded, and no nitrites. They’re even made with chicken raised without antibiotics. Pretty fancy sausage and pretty healthy too.
I started with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a chopped onion, 3 chopped carrots, 3 stalks of chopped celery, and 2 teaspoons of fresh thyme leaves over medium high heat. When the vegetables were beginning to soften, I added a 32 oz. container of chicken stock (with no msg and gluten free) and all the leftover roasted butternut squash. To blend the flavors, I let it simmer for 20 minutes. Then I ladled it into the Vitamix and pureed it all. Back into the soup pot …and it was almost ready!
While the vegetables were simmering in the stock, I cut up the sausages and browned them in a small skillet. Lots of flavor in those sausages!
Next I cut up the roasted Idaho baby Dutch potatoes that were in the fridge…coated in olive oil, seasoning and garlic powder. After the vegetables and the stock were pureed, the thick liquid went back into the soup pot, along with the browned sausage pieces and the sliced potatoes. That was it. Soup.
The spicy chicken sausage gave the soup a nice kick! It was a perfect autumn lunch, and a wonderful way to use leftover butternut squash and potatoes! In fact, I would be tempted to roast the squash and the potatoes on purpose…just to make this soup again!
If there had been any ripe avocados in the kitchen, I would have put some on top of that soup!
Thanks to Melissa’s Produce for the squash and the potatoes….sent to me for a recipe challenge that you’ll be hearing about next week. Stay tuned…a group of San Diego Food Bloggers are taking the challenge and we’ll all be sharing our recipes next Tuesday!
Disclaimer: I received butternut squash and baby Dutch potatoes from Melissa’s Produce so that I could participate in a blogger recipe challenge. I was not paid to write this post. All opinions and experiences are mine.
