Squash Soup with Herb Mushrooms

Disclosure: This is a compensated post in collaboration with Gourmet Garden Herbs. As usual all opinions are my own. Thank you Gourmet Garden for making NJB awesomeness possible!

Mmmmm squash soup can be made in thousands of ways and be the perfect meal. Adding topping makes it a meal, and adding Gourmet Garden herb mushrooms, makes a better squash soup. It’s been a crazy week here at Casa Not Just Baked. I am sure we are all feeling it, the holidays are upon us and we have a load of things to do! Family coming, travelling, or just life and work in general can be overwhelming sometimes. We have Thanksgiving at our house, well for the last six years. It’s my favorite holiday, because of the meal of course! So serious, dead serious, I love it.

I make a soup for lunch that day because we usually have the fam over early or they are staying with us. So I make soup a day before, with a salad, or add greens to this, and voila! A lighter but filling enough lunch to wait for the meal. THE MEAL. We serve a bit earlier, so this soup will be perfect to share while we wait for the turkey to join the table. Squash Soup with Herb Mushrooms will be there for sure!

You could totally make this as a lovely starter to a Thanksgiving meal too. I would be happy belly if I was eating this for a starter course at someones house. Do you host Thanksgiving dinner at your house?

Squash Soup with Herb Mushrooms

Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion chopped, about 1 cups

1 apple, chopped, about 1 cup

1 carrot chopped, about 1/2 cup

1 celery stalks chopped, about 1/2 cup

1 teaspoon Gourmet Garden Garlic

6-7 cups, about 4 delicata squash peeled, seeded, and chopped

4 cups stock, chicken or vegetable, use gluten free if needed

1 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt

3/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Herb Mushroom Garnish:

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon Gourmet Garden Italian Herbs

1- 8 oz package cremini whole mushrooms, de-stem, quater

Herb Croutons:

2 cups French Bread, cut into 1/2 in cubes

Method:

1.  In a 6 quart Dutch oven or heavy bottom pot, heat the oil over medium heat, add onions.  Cook until tender, about 5 minutes.  Add apples, carrots, and celery, cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic, stir and cook for 2 minutes. Add squash, then stock.  Bring to a boil over high heat, lower heat to medium, and reduce to a simmer.  Add salt and pepper, stir.  Cook covered for 20 minutes or until squash is tender.

2. While soup is cooking, make the herb mushrooms. In a small bowl, whisk olive oil and Gourmet Garden Italian Herbs. In a medium skillet, add herb oil, once shimmering, add mushrooms. Lower heat to low, stir and cook fo 5 minutes. Remove from heat, place in a small bowl. Add croutons to skillet, and cook for 5 minutes, until toasted. Turn off heat, keep croutons in pan until serving.

3.  Once squash is tender, turn off heat.  Use an immersion blender, or use a blender to work in batched batches, blend until smooth.

Blender Tip:  If using a counter blender, use a ladle, add about 2-3 ladle full of soup to blender.  Once blended, add puree to a large bowl.  Work in batches until all of the soup is pureed.  {Do not overfill the blender, it will splatter hot soup all over and make a mess, or worse, get on your skin}.  Add the pureed soup back to the pot once it is all pureed.

4.  Once soup is pureed, taste for seasoning.  Add salt and pepper if needed.

5.  Serve warm with a small scoop of Gourmet Garden herb mushrooms and a few herb croutons.  This soup is great for leftovers and will last for about 5 days stored in airtight container in the fridge. Store herb mushrooms separately for up to 3 days.  You can also freeze the soup only in batches for up to 3 months.