It has been a hot minute since the last time I posted on this blog, and let me tell you - it has been a crazy last month, and I thought I'd get you all up to speed on things before we dive into this recipe. This time last month, we {or rather, I} was super busy preparing things for my Grandma's surprise 90th birthday party in Chicago - a Roast & Toast with a 1920's theme! The party was a huge success, and my Grandma {Nani, as we like to call her} had such a great time, which made all of the planning and organizing totally worth it! We even made her cry - I'm just so glad we didn't give her a heart attack! The woman is NINETY after all!
After a wonderful weekend trip with family and friends, it was back to real life in Austin. And real life hit us hard! We suddenly went from a very dry summer to a VERY hard downpour, which led to all kinds of problems. Specifically at our house, the water main that runs from our house out to the curbside broke, flooding our yard and the sidewalk. We turned it off as soon as we found it, went 4 days without running water in our house, had to have a brand new water line installed, and our yard still looks like this:
While we did have to go through all that, we are thankful that our house didn't have any flooding. With that heavy rain, the air traffic control tower at our airport {where Matt works}, wasn't so lucky. It got completely flooded, everyone was evacuated, our airport pretty much shut down for awhile, and Matt had to work round the clock for about a week and a half straight. During which time I was dealing with the aforementioned water line replacement happening at our house. Real life... can I be a kid again??
Anyway, it FINALLY feels like Autumn here in Austin, and I couldn't be happier to move into the holiday season. I made this recipe the other week, and it was my first attempt at a soup using my Blentec. It was also my first attempt at making butternut squash anything for Matt. I eased him into it with this recipe that includes the savory flavors of roasted bacon. Can't go wrong with Bacon!
Autumn Butternut Squash Soup with Roasted Bacon
Ingredients:
1 butternut squash {about 3 lbs.}, peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch chunks
1 yellow onion, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch chunks
4 slices of bacon {raw}, diced
4 slices of bacon {cooked}, crumbled
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-1/2 cups chicken stock, or more {depending on how thick you prefer the soup}
1/4 cup goat cheese, crumbled
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. chopped chives
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
sea salt + freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
Place butternut squash, onion, bell pepper and raw bacon in a ziplock bag. Add olive oil and garlic to the bag, zip tight, and shake to coat. Spread mixture out onto the baking sheet in a single layer. Season with salt + pepper.
Place baking sheet into preheated oven, and bake for about 30 minutes, or until squash is tender. Remove from oven puree the roasted veggies and bacon in a blender or food processor until smooth. Pour mixture into a large stock pot on the stove.
Add chicken stock to pot, and season with salt + pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat for about 5-10 minutes, until slightly thickened. If soup is too thick, add in more chicken stock until you reach desired consistency.
Garnish with cooked bacon bits, crumbled goat cheese and chives + serve!
I know the end of 2015 is going to be really busy for us, but it is all good things that I am SO looking forward to, and I'm hoping to stay more active on here through it all!
Thanks for stopping by!
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