Long ago, in the kitchen of one of Montreal’s finest restaurants, I was taught that a truly fantastic soup can be made from a mere handful of humble ingredients.
What made the soup exceedingly good was the quality and freshness of the ingredients, and the method used for cooking. Over the long, frigid Montreal winters, we cooked batch after batch of sous vide butternut squash, and pureed them with a splash of cream for a velvety soup with vivid color. Night after night, I filled bowls with the rich potage, and topped it with delicacies such as seared foie gras, sauteed wild black trumpet mushrooms, and a pomegranate juice reduction. Sublime.
Today’s recipe is inspired by those upscale bowls of soup: a simple combination of apple, squash and onion, seasoned with salt, and thinned with a little cream. Garnished with diced apples, it’s fall in a bowl; and yes, it was cooked sous vide.
Now, I’m a fan of simple soup from scratch, and will be the first to admit that a sharp knife and a sturdy pot are the only requirements for a good soup, be it rustic, roasted or rich. Alternately, I also have enough of a background in professional cooking to know that ingredients slowly cooked in a water oven (or sous vide) will yield a superior soup.
Ten years ago, when I was manning the stove in various restaurants, the culinary term ‘sous vide’ was virtually unknown to anyone outside of processionals. Now, thanks to crazy-popular TV shows such as Top Chef, Master Chef, and Iron Chef, sous vide is fast gaining on culinary terms such as ‘braising’ or ‘searing’. There are even cookbooks devoted to the subject such as Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide and Sous Vide: Help for the Busy Cook.
When the kind folks behind Sous Vide Supreme contacted me to try one of their counter top water ovens, I agreed, as I was eager to see this beautiful new home version for myself. It has been really fun to recreate some of the recipes for my family I had tucked away from my restaurant days.
Danny, armed with his copy of Cooking for Geeks, is pretty excited to get into sous vide cooking. Being our resident numbers guy, he of course loves the science behind the sous vide method and I’m more than happy to let him share the kitchen.
I can see the sous vide supreme working out very well for our family thanks to my background and Danny’s obsession with temperature. We’ll keep you posted.
What is ‘sous vide’? It means to cook food in vacuum-sealed pouches, submerged in a water bath held at a precisely controlled temperature. Sous vide means “under vacuum” in French, as you can see from the images above. The first photo is before cooking, the second is after. (There’s a helpful video on the Sous Vide Supreme website that explains the cooking method with a great visual.)
What makes a sous vide soup superior? When cooked slowly, in a water bath, vegetables and fruits retain their full color and flavor as well as undergo a remarkable transformation in texture. Once pureed, the flavors seem intensified, and the resulting texture is soft and velvety. With just one bite of this soup, Danny was smitten.
5-ingredient Butternut Squash & Apple Soup (sous vide)
Fresh fall ingredients, cooked together sous vide, make for a surprisingly sophisticated soup.
5 from 2 votes
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Course: Soups & Stews
Prep Time: 10 minutesminutes
Cook Time: 2 hourshours
Total Time: 2 hourshours10 minutesminutes
Servings: 6people
Calories: 123kcal
Author: Aimee
Ingredients
1mediumbutternut squashpeeled and sliced
1largetart applesuch as Granny Smith, cored and sliced
1/2onionsliced, or 6 green onions, ends trimmed
1teaspoonsea salt
3/4cuplight cream
Instructions
Fill 2/3 full with water and preheat the sous vide unit to between 182 and 185 degrees F.
Place the sliced squash, apple and onion into a large, one-gallon food-grade pouch. Vacuum seal the bag to remove as much air as possible.
Submerge the pouch in the sous vide unit and cook for 2 hours until the squash and apples are quite soft. Check the pouches after 20 minutes to make sure they’re fully submerged. If they are floating, weigh them down with a mug or other heavy object.
When the squash is cooked, remove the pouch from the Supreme, and pour the contents into a blender. Puree until smooth.
Add sea salt and cream and puree again. Taste and add more salt if you like. Serve hot, garnished with diced apple if desired.
How do you make butternut squash soup less bland? The key is to season it correctly. I use ground sage and nutmeg which both enhance the flavors of butternut squash and bring out its natural sweetness. Stir in full-fat coconut milk to make this soup extra-creamy, and don't forget the salt and pepper!
Microwaving the squash will make it much easier to peel. Simply slice off the top and bottom, poke the squash all over with a fork and microwave it on high for about 3 minutes. When it's cool enough to handle, peel the squash. The softened flesh will make peeling (and slicing) way easier.
Add spices—I love adding extra spices to my butternut squash soup, like curry powder, cinnamon and nutmeg, or Aleppo pepper. You could even use a dash of pumpkin spice. Add a touch of richness—Drizzle something creamy over top like coconut cream, yogurt, or heavy cream.
Butternut can work as a laxative. In some people butternut can cause diarrhea. Diarrhea can increase the effects of warfarin and increase the risk of bleeding. If you take warfarin do not take excessive amounts of butternut.
Why does my butternut squash soup taste bitter? The growing conditions of the gourd can impact the taste of the flesh. This may cause an elevated production of cucurbitacin in the squash, resulting in a slightly bitter taste. You can balance it with a little bit of salt and sweetener like honey or pure maple syrup.
TIPS: You can save time by buying butternut squash already cubed from your grocery store's produce section. Make sure the squash is fork tender before blending. If you blend too soon, your soup will be grainy, not smooth.
Use a sharp knife (or a sturdy vegetable peeler) to carefully remove the skin. Alternatively, the skin can stay on because it's edible when roasted! But if adding to a soup (or recipe where it won't be roasted), remove and discard. Remove any seeds with a spoon or ice cream scoop.
Butternut squash contains considerable amounts of fiber, which can help you keep a healthy weight and regulate bowel movements. It's known to help prevent colorectal cancer while the beta-carotene in butternut squash can also improve eye health.
A quick Google search reveals that this is a common reaction many people have to handling peeled butternut (and acorn) squash. Butternut squash contains a sticky, sap-like substance that is released when the fruit (squash is technically a fruit) is cut.
Just like other squashes such as courgettes or pumpkins, dogs can eat butternut squash. In fact, butternut squash is one of the most nutritious and delicious fruits for dogs and it's perfectly safe for them to eat regularly.
Buttercup. Not to be confused with the long, tan-hued butternut squash, the buttercup squash is squatter, with dark green skin. Its sweet, nutty flesh is dense and dry, and can be boiled, steamed, or worked into baked goods and casseroles.
Exhibit B: While both are high in B vitamins, the squash is higher in folate, a must in the diets future and soon-to-be mamas, as well as mega-antioxidant vitamin E, and bone-building calcium.
Cut squash in half lengthwise: slice about ½ inch off the top and bottom to make flat sides; then, stand the squash up and carefully cut down the center to make two roughly even halves. Rub halves all over with oil then season with salt. Place on a parchment-lined sheet pan or baking dish, cut side down.
If you pick too early, the flesh will not be fully developed and the squash will lack flavor and not be that wonderfully vegetal sweet that is the wonder of butternut, honeynut, delicata, acorn, pumpkin and kabocha, among dozens of other winter squash.
Add a splash of vinegar (any kind!), or a squeeze of citrus. Chances are, you could use a little more salt. Go ahead—it's ok. Salt perks up flat flavors and helps balance out bitter-tasting ingredients.
Herbs and spices add aroma, flavor, and intensity to soup broth. "Use fresh or dried basil in tomato-based recipes or fresh parsley to add freshness to clear broth soups," says Sofia Norton, RD. You can also go with more heat and spices.
Introduction: My name is Twana Towne Ret, I am a famous, talented, joyous, perfect, powerful, inquisitive, lovely person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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and Sous Vide: Help for the Busy Cook
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, is pretty excited to get into sous vide cooking. Being our resident numbers guy, he of course loves the science behind the sous vide method and I’m more than happy to let him share the kitchen.
