ko.pairings
A comforting classic with thousands of renditions, your favorite butternut squash soup now has a comforting cocktail pairing. Enjoy this simple soup that signifies fall with the easy Apple Cider & Gin Cocktail and relax.
Butternut squash soup is incredibly comforting. The velvety texture that’s thick but smooth in the best ways. The sweetness of the butternut squash and the sautéed onions. The earthiness of the herbs, spices and garlic. The beautiful flavor combination of slow cooked soup. The only thing that makes it better, is butternut squash soup with an Apple Cider & Gin Cocktail pairing.
Butternut squash soup is truly one of those beautiful signals that fall is here. Every fall I make it a couple times (on top of all the other squash recipes I make!!). If I am feeling lazy I will buy the pre-cut or frozen squash in the store. If I am feeling fancy I go to one of the local farmers markets and get the best looking squash I can find. However I choose to cook it, butternut squash soup is always that fall comfort food I am looking for.
Not to mention, the best comfort food is easy to make! Butternut squash soup is EASY. Just sauté ingredients, toss in stock, cook down, blend to desired consistency and it is good to go! BUT, just because the recipe is easy doesn’t mean you can be impatient with it. Soup, even the easy ones, turn out best with patience; this one is no exception. When sautéing you want to get caramelization. So start with the onion and cook that down. Then add the squash and cook that down, for a little while. You want the brown bits of caramelized sugar and starch. They are delicious bursts of flavor!
Conversely, roast the onion and squash ahead of time; but that takes more time and you dirty a baking tray. If you’re like me, even if only on some nights, a pot and a blender can be more than enough to clean. So I often just make this in a pot. Give the squash time to brown, but stir occasionally to not burn. Add salt every time you add something to the pot. Take your time at each step and something so simple becomes even better and more complex.
Not to mention it is an amazing dish to make for people because it is naturally gluten free, and easy to make paleo, vegetarian, vegan! You can serve it as an appetizer, lunch or dinner, and it is always delicious. When I am making butternut squash soup a meal, I usually serve it with grilled cheese, BLTs and even just garlic bread. Often I include a spinach or arugula salad as well. The best times are when I serve it day old after a long day with a drink. Just heat it up and pair it with this Apple Cider & Gin Cocktail. Honestly easy butternut squash soup with a cocktail pairing is the BEST.
Recipe Notes & Substitutions
- Ghee/Oil– I like using ghee to sauté the onions and squash. However olive oil, butter and vegan butter also work (if you are using butter, browning it a bit adds amazing flavor). Often, I use half ghee and half olive oil to get the flavors of both. Or blend in olive oil at the end. If using coconut milk instead of cream, feel free to use coconut oil to bring more of that amazing coconut flavor. Whenever I use coconut milk I always sauté in coconut oil. The added coconut flavor will work incredibly with the dish and still pair nicely with the cocktail.
- Sage– You will need fresh sage leaves. Some sage you fry up crispy to put on top to serve and some is added to the pot to simmer down into the soup. This helps get the beautiful earthy flavor and gives the best topping; fried sage leaves. They are seriously amazing, you can not make too many of these.
- Onion– Any onion you have will do, but I prefer either vidalia or yellow onions for cooking down in this recipe. You want to cook them enough so the sugars start to caramelize and you get that beautiful cooked down flavor. Vidalia and yellow onions will add nice sweetness from sautéing. Red onion will darken the color, but would still be great. Shallots would also be a good substitute for onions here if you prefer.
- Garlic– Use as many cloves of garlic as you like. More garlic is not a bad thing. As a note, I always add garlic last when sautéing to make sure it does not burn. Burnt garlic is pungent and can ruin a dish quickly! It takes longer to cook down and caramelize the sugars in onions than it does garlic. Garlic also burns quickly, so I always add garlic last and only sauté for a couple seconds until fragrant.
- Apple Cider Vinegar– I like apple cider vinegar here but if you’d prefer, use a ¼ cup of white wine instead of the vinegar. White wine vinegar or red wine vinegar would work in its place. Balsamic would be a little sweet and not tart enough. Distilled vinegar or rice wine vinegar would work but not be as ideal.
- Stock– Use whatever stock you have or like. Vegetable, chicken or even beef stock. Homemade, store bought. If you want some added collagen go with bone broth! I used vegetable stock in this recipe, but change it up with whatever I have on hand.
- Cloves– Use whole cloves or add in ¼ tsp of powdered cloves, they really do work incredibly in this recipe. If your cloves have been sitting around for a while (say years), add a few more. The flavor truly is incredible with the sweet creamy soup. Feel free to place them in a spice bag to make them easy to remove. If you are blending fully, they should blend but you make get a chunk of clove here or there. Conversely remove them from the pot with the bay leaves before adding into the blender or immersion blending.
- Heavy Cream– Use heavy cream, milk, yogurt or coconut milk. All work, so go with your preference! If you are using coconut milk use the canned coconut milk with the added fat, but not sweetened coconut milk. Coconut milk will keep it vegan and paleo if you need it to be.
- Salt– The general rule I use for salting when I am cooking comes down to: salt after I add anything to the pot. Just when that ingredient is salted adds to the finesse of the dish. I start by sautéing the onions and start getting them brown. Then I add salt. Then add another ingredient, sauté a bit and then add more salt. It is essentially like salting everything when you add it; like salting meat before cooking it on the grill. This helps regulate the amount of salt you are adding, to avoid over or under salting. The further finesse comes in the amount to add at each step. Generally speaking if you’re adding a lot of an ingredient salt more, if you’re adding just a little salt less.
Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Ghee, Olive Oil, Coconut Oil or Butter
- 13 leaves Sage (or more, 8 for frying 5 for the soup)
- 1 medium Onion (~1 cup onion diced)
- 1 Butternut Squash Skinned and cubed
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1/3 cup Apple Cider
- 32 oz Stock (more if you like thinner soup)
- 2-3 Bay leaves
- 5 Whole Cloves or 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 cup Heavy Cream, Coconut Milk, Yogurt
- 2 Tbsp Oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat a pot on medium heat for about 1 minute. Once the pan is warm, add oil or ghee and let heat up for a minute of two. Then, test the oil temperature by placing one sage leaf in the oil; if it starts to sizzle the oil is ready to fry, if it doesn't leave the sage leaf in until it begins to sizzle. Then fry the 8 sage leaves in oil for about 2 minutes per side to make it crispy. Remove the leaves from the oil and set aside for garnishing. Remember to set aside 5 leaves for cooking into the soup.
- Add diced onion and saute until brown, stirring every now and again to keep from burning; about 4-5 minutes total.
- Once onions turn translucent and start to brown, add in a pinch of salt, about a ¼ tsp, and add the diced and peeled squash. Note: you don’t want the onions too brown before adding the squash otherwise some could start to burn while caramelizing the squash.
- Saute for 5 more minutes to start browning the squash.
- Then add in garlic, another pinch or ¼ tsp of salt and saute for another minute until the garlic is fragrant.
- Add vinegar or white wine, (step back because a burst of vinegar fragrance is intense) and saute for another 30 seconds. If you have nice brown bits at the bottom of the pot use the added liquid to help pull that flavor from the pot
- Then add stock of choice, fresh sage leaves (not the ones you fried, the ones you set aside), bay leaves, nutmeg and cloves.
- Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes until the squash is tender.
- Remove from heat and let cool. Once cooled down, remove the bay leaves and cloves (if you don’t get all the cloves and are blending fully it is fine). Add the soup to a blender or use an immersion blender to blend until smooth. If you like a bit of chunks and not perfectly smooth, keep ⅓-½ the soup on the side and blend the rest until smooth, then add the reserved and blend to mix.
- Once to the smoothness desired, add heavy cream, milk or coconut milk, and olive oil or butter. Stir to mix and melt the butter.
- Serve with fried sage, fresh cracked pepper and the simple Apple Cider Gin cocktail.
