Garden Tuesday : Spicy Squash Apple Soup

Posted on October 29, 2013 |

Woke to a frost in the air and the thermometer dipping below that 32°F mark. Winter sqash season is here which also means soup season is here!

I get a bit excited when I see the farmers markets and produce sections start to fill with butternut squashes, acorn squashes, delicata squashes, sugar pumpkins, Cinderella pumpkins, blue Hubbard’s and more. And by a bit excited, I mean cheerleading championship competition excited or twitter hashtag #toocute over cat video excited, or Ryan Gosling spotted in mirrored sunglasses and tight white t-shirt excited. All things I hear get some people giggly, squeal-y, bouncy excited over is how I get when I see a farm stand chock full of winter squashes and pumpkins.

Yeah, I did just admit that, but winter squashes really know how to build up drama throughout the season in anticipation of the final fruiting crescendo in the fall.

One starts out deep in the winter planning their crops for the season. Browsing seed catalogs and mapping out planting and seeding plans. Eager to start getting fresh vegetables, first-of-the-season, fast maturing and early, prolific producers are enticing. Then, there is the winter squash section filled with varieties that take a hundred days or more to mature. Their seeds and seedlings don’t want to go into the cool ground of April, May or even early June. The only thing that entices the purchase of seeds with such a far away pay off is perhaps the fact that deep within those winter months, one may still be enjoying last season’s stored away winter squash. In February and March, enjoying the full body warming of a hearty, deep orange winter squash soup during a session of seed catalog browsing is sure fire way to convince you to make that long term investment in winter squash seed.

At this point, I should confess that although this is ‘Garden Tuesday’, I actually do no have any such jewels of winter squash in my garden. There are two barriers. First, I would have to buy these magical seeds in the deep of winter. Second, the thing that keeps me from such a purchase – the squash vine borer. My love/obsession with wither squash has lead me to set aside large sections of raised beds for them. As the season goes on, I get long thick vines with big beautiful leave. Then, I start dreaming of fall bounty complete with its seas of beautiful, orange squash soup.

The plans march on sending out their first male flowers. These scout flowers are designed to entice pollinators to the plant before it puts energy into producing female fruiting flowers. Suddenly, a few female flowers start making their appearance and I am giddy with anticipation of what may come in another 3-months. But alas, I wake up one morning and witness the tell tale signs of squash vine borers – sawdust-like feces at the vine bases. Its like thinking you just saw Ryan Gosling only to get a closer look and realize your beer goggles zeroed in on some scrawny, strung out hipster in flashy sunglasses. Massive disappointment.

So, for all my talk about eagerly anticipating the fall harvest after so many seasons of preparing, growing and nurturing, what I really mean, is I sort of, kind of go through the summer browsing the farmers markets taking in all the other cool vegetable only to get all giddy and excited in September when the first winter squash suddenly appears. To hit that Ryan Gosling analogy again, its like. . .well. . .its as if. . . hmmmm. . . well, I don’t know how its like siting Ryan Gosling unless you are submerged in seeing lots of great things similar to Ryan Gosling, like some other Hollywood hotties and then you happen upon an actual Ryan Gosling.

Yeah, I lost myself on that one. Moving on.

From that first winter squash siting, it quickly becomes a winter squash purchasing and another winter squash purchasing and another and and another and it goes on until all the winter squash are gone. Honestly, I should probably seek help for my impulse squash buying problem.

But, until then, there is soup, squash soup. My all time favorite way use up my supply of winter squash is to make a big pot of Spicy Squash Apple Soup. Given the number of squash I end up with, it is a good thing my Spicy Squash Apple Soup is really easy to make. It takes some time, but most of that time is with the all the ingredients getting soft in the Dutch Oven.

Frankly, the soup’s so awesome and easy to make, I don’t need to cure my impulsive squash buying problem.

Spicy Squash Apple Soup

1/2 Cup Olive Oil
1 Medium Onion, roughly chopped
4-5 Slices of Bacon, cut in 1/2-inch pieces (optional)
1 Winter Squash or Sweet Pumpkin, large dice
6-7 Apples, large dice
3 Jalapeños, roughly chopped
32 oz Chicken Stock
1-1/2 Cup Apple Cider
2 T Smoked Paprika
1 t Cumin
2 T Unsalted Butter
1 T Dried Thyme
1 T Dried Oregano
2 T Basil Pesto
Salt and Pepper

1. Heat oil in a Dutch Oven and sweat onions until translucent.

2. Add the squash, apples and jalapeños to the pot. Pour in the stock and apple cider. Simmer covered for 90 minutes or until the squash is tender.