Making Do

Last week Andy was fighting a little winter cold, so I decided to make a hearty soup for supper. As you might imagine, we are into the lean months, and meals take a little bit more planning these days. So, I looked around the kitchen to see what we might have on hand - one butternut squash leftover from the CSA, sweet potatoes galore, garlic, and a few lingering apples. Then I did what any modern cook does next - I went online to see if there were any soup recipes that might fit the bill. A few minutes later I returned to the kitchen with a recipe for a farmhouse butternut squash soup from Epicurious, which is a wonderful recipe resource.

What was great about this recipe is that it allowed me to utilize some of my own garden reserves, what little I have left of them anyway. Usually when we plan to make a soup we will have saved some vegetable stock from cooking greens. Occasionally we'll have cause to make some chicken stock, if chicken was on the menu that week. But in this case, we had nothing. So I cut some of greens from the garden (mustards, baby kale, arugula), cooked them, and used the stock for the soup. The recipe also called for carrots. I had planted carrots in the fall, but was planning to let them overwinter so they would have time to fully develop. But after pulling one up and seeing it wasn't too scrawny, I decided that in the name of good soup these puppies should be donated to the cause. I also gathered fresh thyme from our garden to add to the pot. It was such a treat to go out to the garden at the end of January and actually have something to harvest. Who knew pulling up carrots could be so satisfying?

Here's the recipe from Epicurious with some minor Eating Alabama adjustments:

Farmhouse Butternut Squash Soup
3 bacon slices (Rosita's Farm)
4 large garlic cloves (Alice Parker, Tuscaloosa)
1/2 tsp cumin
1 1/2 lb butternut squash (Snow's Bend Farm)
1/2 lb sweet potatoes (Smoky Smith, Tuscaloosa)
1/2 lb carrots (our garden)
1 apple, we didn't have a granny smith (Scott's Apple Orchard)
3-5 fresh thyme sprigs (our garden)
2 bay leaves (UA Arboretum)
5 1/2 cups vegetable stock, can also use part water (made from greens from our garden)
1-1 1/2 tsp cider vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

from Epicurious: Cook bacon in a 4-to 6-quart heavy pot over medium heat until crisp. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain.

Add garlic and (cumin) to fat in pot and cook, stirring occasionally, until garlic is pale golden, about 1 minute. Add squash, (sweet potatoes), carrots, apple, thyme, bay leaves, broth, water, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and boil, uncovered, until vegetables are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. Discard thyme and bay leaves.

Purée about 4 cups soup in a blender, in batches if necessary, until smooth. Return to pot and season with salt, pepper, and vinegar. Serve topped with crumbled bacon.