Creamy Vegetable Soup

This Creamy Vegetable Soup is utterly French in the rich delicacy of its texture and taste. Even those who are generally attracted to the exotic and spicy in their cuisine might occasionally enjoy something so elegant as this soup.

Hard as it may be to get excited about a soup based on cauliflower, squash, and onions, when you want something soothing, try this. A thinner version of this might also be the basis for a cold soup in a different season, although I haven’t tried it and have never actually been served a cold soup in France.

This recipe calls for cream, however, once the soup is pureed, it IS CREAMY, without the addition of actual cream. I had planned to serve it that way, when a bottle of heavy cream came my way, so I added just a couple of tablespoons to give the soup an even richer taste. Normally, when cream is called for I would use Low Fat Evaporated Milk. In this case, if the soup is very thick, even a little milk might work.

Ingredients

4 lbs. butternut squash, peeled and seeded

1 small cauliflower

2 Tbsp. butter

4 medium onions, peeled and chopped

8 cups chicken stock

4 Tbsp. cream

Salt and pepper

¼ tsp. nutmeg

Directions

1.    Bring a medium pot of water to a boil.

2.    Take enough of the squash to make one cup finely diced. Put squash in boiling water.

3.    Remove core and break cauliflower into florets. Take enough of the top florets and break into smaller pieces to make one cup. Add to boiling water. Par boil until JUST tender (Squash takes at least twice as long as cauliflower).

4.    Immediately rinse vegetables in cold water and set aside.

5.    Chop onions and cut rest of squash in chunks.

6.    Melt butter and add onions, squash chunks, and remainder of cauliflower, nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cook covered until vegetables are soft, but do not brown.

7.    Add chicken broth and cook until all vegetables are soft. When cool enough, puree vegetables. Return soup to pot and add cream and reserved vegetables.