Winter Squash and Apple Soup with Radicchio

This week was our penultimate farmbox of 2006. Considering the usual fall climate here in western PA, I think it was a remarkable assortment of goodies. A red cabbage, raddicchio, radishes, spinach, dill, a green pepper, potatoes, baby fennels, butternut squash, kale, spinach, lettuce, apple butter and cider. This soup is just another of the many butternut squash soups a person can make-either off the top of his/her head, or, in this case, combining 2 Deborah Madison recipes, from her new cookbook. The slim new paperback is called Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen. It is chock full of wonderful soups from the brilliant, imaginative and mostly vegetarian Ms. Madison.

This soup combines butternut squash and apples, roasted, with sauteed onions a bit of garlic and some broth. I used homemade chicken broth, because I had it, but it would be fine with the original vegetable broth, or water, for that matter.The soup is pureed, and garnished with bits of grilled raddicchio, an inspired idea. Wish I'd thought of it, but I do get to eat it, after all. I'm a sucker for grilled veg as well as for bitter greens (or, in this case, bitter purples). The creamy roasted sweetness of the vegetable puree is set off perfectly by the puckery bitter/sour garnish. A swirl of greek yogurt, or sour cream..and it's pretty, too.

There are so many wonderful winter squash recipes on the web and elsewhere, that it is hard for me to realize that 15 years ago, I viewed winter squash as a boring vegetable. It's amazingly versatile and delicious. I'm contemplating buying a bushel from my CSA farmer, for winter use. I'm just not sure my storage conditions are good enough. In any event, this is how you make this particular soup. No doubt you will be inventing your own winter squash masterpiece some time soon.

There are probably as many people making gorgeous orange or mustard coloured winter squash soups and gratins at the moment as there have been making the Sullivan Street no-knead bread from the New York Times. Maybe even more. Because it is the height of the season, and it is so very good.

You need:

A butternut squash or other winter squash, about 2 lbs.
cooking apples, peeled 2
pear, not too ripe one
peeled fresh ginger, about 1 1/2" cube, sliced thin
broth or water
salt
pepper
onion, one thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
small head raddicchio, cut in wedges
olive oil
red wine vinegar

Preheat oven to 425F. Cut the squash in half, and remove seeds. (Seeds can be roasted with a little oil and some smoked paprika and salt, and used to garnish.This is really good. I was lazy and didn't do it. I am experiencing regret.) Cut each half in 3 pieces, and cut the apples and pear in chunks, removing pits and stems. Spray a baking sheet with oil, and lay the squash, fruit and ginger on in a single layer. Spray with more olive oil, all over, and salt and pepper it all. Bake until very soft- it will take about an hour, possibly more.

Cool slightly, and then remove and discard all of the squash skin. Cook the sliced onion in some olive oil, in your soup pot, until just it's starting to brown, then add the roasted stuff , making sure to include all carmelized bits. Deglaze the pan with broth, and pour over contents of soup pot. Add enough more broth, or water, to cover the veg by 2", along with the chopped garlic. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for half an hour or so. Blend with a stick blender, leaving a bit of texture, if you like. Taste for seasoning. Add broth if too thick, or cook down if too thin.

Heat a cast iron skillet or grill pan, spraying or rubbing with a tiny bit of oil, and brown the raddicchio wedges on both sides. Sprinkle them with salt and some droplets of red wine or sherry vinegar. When cool, chop them into squares. Serve the soup with a bit of sour cream or thick yogurt swirled in, and the raddicchio on top. Purple and orange. Mine's got a few fennel fronds , parsley might be better.

Comments

[Tanna]

Did you have to mention that cookbook? I hadn't seen that one. Why am I always lusting for another.
Yes, winter squash is flooding the markets now and this would be perfect with the no-knead bread I'm starting today!!

[farmgirl]

YUM. Love that the fruit and ginger are roasted.

Buy the bushel! Buy the bushel! I so envy your farmbox subscription.

[sher]

That looks so delicious. I'm a huge fan of Deborah Madison. She never fails. That soup is typical of her, using ingredients that many people would never think to combine. I've never had that soup of hers, but I know I would love it. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[Julie]

Your farmbox subscription really does sound excellent. I can't believe it includes raddichio! And grilled raddichio sounds like just the thing to offset the sweetness of the squash.

Adding this Deborah Madison book to my ever-growing Amazon wishlist.

[zp]

That WAS a surprisingly good farm box. Another of life's strange surprises; the Murray Ave Eat n' Park (which, for Pittsburgh breakfast I actually prefer to Pamela's, strange, I know, whatever) has 3 items of Wexford Farms produce on their menu. At least it's a start. And I've signed up for the winter veg email. And did you catch the glowing report on the box from the blog Square Circuit?

Maybe you could sell minimalist loaves from your apartment stoop and thus, immediately, become the best breadshop in Sq Hill . . . Or maybe I should just clear my mind and bake that bread. I'm so distractable that baking is a challenge. Liniment cake, etc, you know the story . . .

[Lydia]

The radicchio is a nice touch! I make a soup very much like this all the time, and I'm going try this garnish.

[Jason Truesdell]

I always love a good squash soup... it's kind of comfort food for me. I think I'll have to give the grilled radicchio a try; I usually use garnishes like toasted pepitas with a little seasoning, or sometimes some roasted nut oils such as walnut or, a long time ago when I last found it, pumpkin seed oil.

[lindy]

Jason-I was excited to find a tiny bottle of pumpkin seed oil at Kalustyan's on my recent NY visit. Kalustyan's has a website (www.kalustyans.com) and do mail order, so I'm sure you could get some from them- even if you are not a New Yorker.
I bought it, based on a mention in a recipe from Deborah Madison, but have not tried it yet. What is it like-is it a very strong flavor? What do you use it for besides squash soup? Please advise!

[Rebecca]

This soup sounds divine, especially to me who is in bed with a very bad cold and craving soups. I would be leery of buying the bushel. I had two butternut squashes go bad in my fridge after just a couple of weeks, and here I was thinking they would keep practically forever. Maybe the fridge was too moist for them and they would have done better in a basket in the garage.

[Lynn D.]

I just made up an onion-shallot-leek, butternut squash and lentil soup from what I had on hand. Then I remembered the grilled raddicchio from this post and fortunately I had that on hand as well. This was truly delicious; thanks, Lindy!

Rebecca, I think the butternut squash would definitely do better out of the fridge.

[lindy]

Oh Lynn, that sounds really good. I am going to try some lentils in my next batch of soup.

Rebecca-These squash have been sitting on my counter in my (admittedly pretty cool-65F) house for a month now, and they are fine. The garage might be just right- last year, the porch was too cold, and they froze, defrosted, and promptly spoiled on defrosting-but the porch is unprotected and very windy.