A week after Thanksgiving, I became weary of the winter squashes staring at me from the windowsill. I put them there to inspire me to make a clever Thanksgiving dinner table centerpiece over.a month ago. That never happened. Instead, they became a constant reminder that I had never gotten around to doing that. Or cooking them; I was basically over squash.

The question was, do I cook and freeze them or put them in the compost pile where I knew my chickens would happily devour them. That’s one of the nice things about having chickens: they are the ultimate assuagers of food-waste guilt, and they give you eggs for their trouble. Ultimately, I roasted them, scooped out their flesh, and froze it.

Soon after, I attended a birthday luncheon at a restaurant. Each of my friends ordered the butternut squash soup. It was delicious. I decided then and there I would use the roasted squash to make soup. I had a rich Chicken Stock from Rotisserie Chicken Bones in the freezer to use for the broth.

Yield: 12 cups of a hearty soup.

Ingredients
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, roughly diced (3 cups or 1 pound)
4 cloves of garlic, peeled, smashed, and chopped
4 pounds (7 cups) roasted winter squash (see directions below)
2 quarts (8 cups), no salt added chicken broth.
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Mise en Place

To Roast Squash:
Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds and fibrous pulp. I used acorn, butternut, and Seminole pumpkin squashes.
 

Use a basting brush to swab the squash halves with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and garlic pepper. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet in a 425º oven. Cook for one hour. Let cool for another hour. Remove the skin and any remaining stringy pulp. I packed and froze the cooked squash.
.

To Make Soup:
Sautée onion and garlic in olive oil over medium-low heat until they become soft and translucent — about 15 minutes.

Add the thawed roasted veggies. Stir in the broth and bring the soup to a simmer. Add cumin. Simmer for 15 minutes. Season to taste. I only needed to add one teaspoon of salt and no pepper because the roasted vegetables had already been well-seasoned.

Serve with a sprinkle of chopped parsley for garnish, if desired.

My NEWly decorated windowsill.

Related Posts
Chicken Stock from Rotisserie Chicken Bones
Rotisserie Chicken Soup, Revisited
Sick Soup, Sometimes Known as Snow Day Soup
Aunt Bridget’s Chicken Soup with Little Meatballs
Lisa’s Award Winning Buffalo Chicken Chili
Kelly’s Duck Stew
Bruce’s Turkey and Sausage Gumbo
Mrs. Lombard’s Portuguese Kale Soup (aka Caldo Verde)
Pasta e Fagioli, aka Pasta and Bean Soup

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