The Wheeling Gourmet » Buttercup Squash Soup With Porto And Cream

Buttercup Squash Soup With Porto And Cream

A wonderful soup for cool fall evenings. Simple, yet elegant. And affordable!

Degree of Difficulty: Very Easy
Cost: $
Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Yields: 4 portions
Share this post:

(http://wix.nu/8V)
By: Nicolas Steenhout

I like pumpkin or squash soups. They are easy to make, affordable, and quite quick. And they can begin a simple meal, or be part of a fancier meal.

Recipe
Discussion
Photos
Vidéo

Recipe

Ingredients

1 Buttercut Squash (approx 600 g (1 1/2 cup))
500 ml (2 cups) Vegetable Stock
Fresh grated nutmeg, Salt, Fresh Ground Black Pepper
120 ml (4 oz) heavy cream (whipping cream) - Optional
90 ml (3 oz) Porto - Optional

Mise En Place

Cut, peel and remove the seeds from the buttercup.

Preparation

Cook the squash in the vegetable stock until it is easy to mash.
Put the squash and the stock in a blender and whizz until it is completely smooth.
Put back in the pot, through a strainer to ensure there are no fibers left.
Season and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Finition

Whip the cream to soft peaks.
Divide the soup into 4 bowls.
Drizzle the Porto on the soup.
Spoon a little whipped cream and delicately place it on the soup.
Serve immediately.

Photos

squash pieces in a pot
Squash cut in piece in the pot.

vegetable and stock in a pot
Vegetable stock added to the buttercup before cooking.

pouring soup through a strainer
Straining the buttercup soup

buttercup squash soup
The soup, with a dollop of whipped cream

Video

There is no video available for this recipe.

View all videos by the Wheeling Gourmet on YouTube

4 Responses to “Buttercup Squash Soup With Porto And Cream”

I love butternut squash, but I haven't seen it for ages here in Denmark. I have a question for you - is there any way to judge the quality of a squash on the outside? And with all the squash-type plants that people think are great to sell for decoration, how can I tell whether someone is selling me a decoration version (may not have been raised in optimal conditions for a food product as opposed to something to be used as "non-food")?

Comment by: Karen - April 19th, 2010 @ 8:55
@Karen, be careful not to confuse butterCUP squash with butterNUT squash. They are different :) The buttecup squash is round, and dark green, with some pale ribs. The butternut squash is beige, elongated, with a bulbous end.

I tend to judge quality of whole pumpkin-type squashes by thumping them with my thumb. It should emit a bit of a "hollow" sound, and vibrate a bit. The pumpkin should be heavy, and have no soft spots.

As for decorative ones, there's no real way to tell just by looking, although decorative squash & pumpkin tend to be smaller, and have more "interesting warts". Ask the vendor, if they are around, would be my approach.

Comment by: Nic - April 19th, 2010 @ 10:14
OK next time I'll polish my glasses before commenting. :) I had not picked up on the CUP part. :)
Thanks for your patience - and good tips. Much obliged.

Comment by: Karen - April 19th, 2010 @ 10:25
:D No problem. You aren't the first to make that mistake, nor the last :) Including my local grocery store :)

Comment by: Nic - April 19th, 2010 @ 10:57

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Tags: Buttercup, Cream, Porto, Squash, Stock
This entry was posted on Sunday, April 18th, 2010 at 19:50 and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese? Charles De Gaulle

More food quotes »

The Wheeling Gourmet by Nicolas Steenhout