What a difference a week makes in the weather. A week ago Friday when we arrived up at our cabin in northern Wisconsin it was 78°F. This past Friday when I got out of our car, it was 28°F. Yikes—it felt like winter.
Here’s a delicious soup for cold fall and winter nights. I found this recipe in a Byerly’s (local grocery store chain) monthly magazine, titled Real Food. This soup is thick and creamy but still very light since it uses 3 cups of apple cider to only 1 cup of heavy cream. I asked my friend, Carol, to make it for our wine-group weekend at the cabin.
Curried Apple-Squash Soup
4 tablespoon (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
Coarse sea salt to taste
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 cups chopped butternut squash
2 large apples, any variety, peeled, cored, and chopped
2/3 cups apple cider
1 cup water
1 cup heavy cream
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Optional: Chopped scallion greens for garnish
Melt the butter in a heavy soup pot over medium heat. Add onion, celery and garlic. Sprinkle generously with coarse salt and cook, stirring, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the curry powder and mix well. Cook, stirring often, until onion and celery are very soft, about 10 minutes. Add squash, apples, cider and water. Reduce the heat to medium-low; cover the pot and cook until the squash and apples are very soft, about 45 minutes. Cook the soup slightly, then puree using an immersion or regular blender. Stir in the cream Season with pepper to taste and add more salt if needed. Heat until warmed through. Ladle into bowl and garnish with chopped scallion.
4 to 6 servings