Butternut Squash Soup

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP by Ruth Reichl (Random House)

Shopping list:
1 stalk celery, 2 carrots, 1 pound butternut squash, 1/2 pound potatoes

• Staples:
  1 onion
• olive oil
• salt

1.Begin by coarsely chopping an onion, a stalk of celery and 2 carrots; you don’t have to be fussy about this since you’re going to end up pureeing everything.

2. Slick the bottom of a casserole or Dutch oven with olive oil, add the vegetables and let them tumble into tenderness, which should take about ten minutes.

3. Peel a pound of butternut squash and cut it into 3/4 inch or so cubes.

4. Peel half pound of waxy potatoes (Yukon Golds are good), and cut into chunks of the same size. 5. Stir them into the vegetables in the casserole, add a couple teaspoons of sea salt and 2 1/2 cups of boiling water, cover and simmer until everything is very soft. This will take about half an hour.

5. Very carefully puree the soup in a blender, in small batches, making sure the top of the blender is secure (hot soup can be painful).

6. Taste for seasoning and serve drizzled with a few drops of olive oil and/or good balsamic vinegar. A crisp dice of apples on top makes this look lovely and adds a very pleasing note of sweetness. (Diced pickled walnuts also make a wonderful topping.)

CREDIT LINE: Excerpted from MY KITCHEN YEAR: 136 RECIPES THAT SAVED MY LIFE by Ruth Reichl Copyright © 2015 by Ruth Reichl. Excerpted by permission of Random House, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.