Serious Eats: Recipes

The Crisper Whisperer: Gingered Butternut Soup

Posted by Carolyn Cope, October 20, 2009

Note: You may know Carolyn Cope as Umami Girl. She stops by on Tuesdays to help us cook through seasonal surplus with ease.

[Photograph: Carolyn Cope]

I'll be honest. I was a little hesitant to post a butternut squash soup recipe this week. You all are pretty sophisticated eaters, and there's a fair amount of puréed butternut sloshing around in the world every fall already. It's not like I'm going to convince anyone I invented butternut soup. It's no hairy gourd bread, I'll tell you that much.

It's creamy. It's vegan. As its mom would say, it has a lot going for it.

Don't get me wrong. This is a really tasty soup, and it's unimpeachably nutritious. It boasts subtle, balanced flavors that are a refreshing alternative to the usual pumpkin pie spice. (Okay, fair enough, I'm the one boasting, but as my sister used to confound herself by saying, it's "six of one half, dozen of the other," am I right?) It's creamy. It's vegan. As its mom would say, it has a lot going for it. I just wasn't sure it was exciting enough.

But then I had a few of those days last week where the sky feels like it's cracking into giant, ugly shards and throwing them like javelins at your shoulders. And boy was I glad to have a pot of this soup in the fridge. I'd tell you how many bowls of it I've eaten in the past seven days and how many people I've shared it with, but trust me, it wouldn't leave a very ladylike impression. Let's just say it's a good thing for my karma that I'm sharing the recipe. Here's hoping the sky is listening.

Gingered Butternut Soup

About the author: Carolyn Cope writes Umami Girl and manages a CSA in Hoboken, New Jersey.

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