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Beautiful Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Velvety roasted butternut squash soup is a wonderful dish to serve in the fall or winter. Some butternut squash recipes feature savory ingredients like potatoes and leeks and others use sweet ones like cranberry and apple.
The following recipe for butternut squash soup features savory ingredients as well as pomegranate juice, to add an exotic sweetness. This juice is tart instead of sweet but it does add a nice fruity taste. A lot of pumpkin soup recipes feature either all savory or all sweet ingredients and butternut squash is just as adaptable and versatile.
Cooking the onions for a few hours over a really low heat, with olive oil, thyme, butter, salt and pepper gives you wonderfully sweet caramelized onions. Roasting and pureeing the butternut squash with the onions, cream, juice and vegetable stock gives you a mouthwatering soup recipe and you can serve this for lunch or dinner.
Gourmet Soup Recipe with Squash, Gorgonzola, and Onions
Ingredients -
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
3 sprigs fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried thyme
1 lb thinly sliced yellow onions
1 lb thinly sliced red onions
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ cup crumbled gorgonzola cheese
½ cup Half & Half
½ cup dry white wine
2 bay leaves
1 butternut squash (weight 4 or 5 lbs)
3 ½ cups vegetable stock
1 cup pomegranate juice
¼ teaspoon each salt and black pepper
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Slice the butternut squash in half and put the halves on a lined baking sheet, cut sides down. Roast for about 50 minutes or until the flesh is tender and the skin is puckered. Let it cool, and then cube it, discarding the skin.
Heat a big pot over a moderate heat. Add the oil, butter, salt, pepper, and onions. Sprinkle in the thyme and add the onions. Stir well and turn the heat down to low. Stir the onions every 10 minutes and cook for about 2 hours or until they are golden but not brown.
Put ⅔ of the onion mixture in a blender with 1 cup of the vegetable stock.
Puree and put it back in the pot. Put half the squash in the blender and puree it with another cup of the stock. Put this back in the pot. Puree the remaining squash and put it in the pot.
Add the bay leaves, wine, Half & Half and pomegranate juice. Stir in the cayenne pepper. Bring the soup to a simmer and add extra stock, if necessary.
Cover it and simmer gently for half an hour.
Warm the reserved onions back up in a pot over a gentle heat. Take the bay leaves out of the soup and divide it between 10 serving bowls.
Sprinkle the gorgonzola on top and then the reserved onions.
(Serves 10)
Wine Suggestion:
Which Wine to Serve with Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
This soup is fantastic with a Gewurztraminer or Viognier. These medium sweet wines will contrasts amazingly with the gorgonzola and they are still good even if you omit the cheese from the recipe. The Santa Ynez Herman Story 205 Viognier is especially good. Some nutty tasting Italian wines also go well with this soup because of the sweetness of the caramelized onions.
Photo Description:
This is a gourmet soup and you can tell that either by reading the recipe or by looking at the photo. If you are looking for an impressive soup recipe for a dinner party, you cannot go wrong with this sweet butternut squash soup. The salty, ripe flavor of the gorgonzola contrasts so well with the sweetness of the squash and the pomegranate juice. This soup is a treat for your senses, combining wonderful flavors and textures.
Pairing California Wine with Vegetable Recipes
Because there are so many different vegetable recipes, there is no "one size fits all" for wine pairing. The same applies to proteins such as chicken. Because chicken is a mild-tasting meat, you might like to serve a delicate white wine if you are serving plain chicken. The fun starts when there are other ingredients involved and you need to pair the wine with the seasonings. For example, smothering the chicken in a blue cheese sauce means you need to find a wine that goes with blue cheese rather than chicken. Serving the chicken in a spicy curry means you will need a wine that is good with spices. Vegetable recipes vary a lot and you might be making a grilled vegetable salad, a roasted butternut squash soup, or a tomato-based vegetarian pasta dish.
There are a few basic rules that you need to know when pairing wine with vegetable recipes. Be careful with red wines. A Pinot Noir or Chianti might be good with pasta dishes or other vegetable recipes but steer clear of big, bold reds like Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon that are amazing with steak or game. This is because their flavor can totally overpower the flavor of your delicate vegetables and their tannin content clashes with most vegetables. The proteins you find in red meat bind with the tannins in wine, making the steak taste richer and the wine smoother, but vegetables are free of protein so they will taste metallic and bitter if paired with a robust red wine.
Different Types of Vegetable Dishes
White wines with an herby or grassy aroma tend to go well with most vegetable recipes so if you are not sure, something like a Sauvignon Blanc is a good bet. If your vegetable recipe has blue cheese or another strong, tangy flavor, try something bordering on sweet, such as a Gewurztraminer or Viognier. These wines are also nice with most oriental flavors and Asian cuisine. Smooth, soft, fruity red wines like Gamay or Pinot Noir are good with green vegetables. Sauvignon Blanc has natural citrus, pea, and asparagus aromas, which work nicely with green vegetables too.
A vegetarian rice dish is best with a medium-bodied red wine like Merlot. Artichokes and asparagus can be difficult because they contain cynarin, an organic acid, making everything taste sweeter. If you are serving these vegetables, go for Chenin Blanc, Chablis or another very dry white wine.
If your recipe contains strong ingredients like scallions, leeks, onions or green bell peppers, choose a very dry white wine with plenty of acidity. Pinot Blanc, Pinot Grigio, or Muscadet would work, or you could try a sparkling wine or even a dry rose. Try Riesling for grilled vegetable recipes - its sweet yet citric edge is amazing with the smoky taste of the food. When making salad recipes, match the wine to the dressing. A creamy dressing needs an acidic wine such as Riesling. Green beans or broccoli in oil or butter would be great with a lightly oaked Sauvignon Blanc. Pairing wine with butternut squash soup recipes and other vegetables might be tricky but if you follow the above guide you should not have any problems.
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