Recipe for a Healthy Planet by Alex and Lisa Murray
Alex is in the kitchen this month:
It’s that time of the season. All the leaves are brown (thankfully also red, orange, and yellow), we’re listening to The Zombies and the Mama and the Papas, and the holiday season looms large.
If you’re like me, you’re affected by Daylight Savings and starting to get a wee bit depressed
when you end work and it’s pitch black outside. I’ve found the only thing to save me is
embracing the season, which, for autumn, means soup. Previously, I was on the record as a
certified soup hater; I’ve been known to call soup ‘just a vehicle for bread.’ But now that I’m more plant-based in my eating, a bread vehicle sounds really good. Give me some crusty bread, some fake butter, and a bowl of soup, and maybe I’ll finally warm up in this New Hampshire chill.
Seeing soup as a magical potion — something you can just bung into a pot, blitz into a creamy concoction, and it’s ready to eat — is quite an appealing prospect for an easy meal, especially in the month of November, when food preparation becomes overloaded with the thought and planning for Thanksgiving. I’ve made Thanksgiving meals for five people and for 30 people, and no matter how you observe the day, if you’re cooking dinner that night, the prep will consume you.
So, in the run-up to the holiday season, here’s a soup that is seasonally appropriate, easy to
make, and great for the planet. While I may be known as a reluctant gardener, I am a humble servant of seasonality. As the garden has been put to bed this season, it’s time to buy seasonal vegetables as fresh from the market as you can, and use the aromatics you’ve stored from your fall harvest like onions, leeks, and garlic, to add warmth to your dishes. This soup recipe uses the best of this harvest season: the mighty butternut squash. I’ve added a can of beans in place of heavy cream for a lushly creamy soup that’s high in protein.
I will also admit to going crazy on the spices, because nothing helps make a soup interesting more than adding spices along the way. I use curry powder, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg — a.k.a. all the “warm” spices. Make this for someone with a cold, and the spices will help chase that illness away.
If you serve this soup with a side of corn (or maybe cornbread?), you’ll have used all of the
Three Sisters crops native to the North American harvest: squash, beans, and corn. It’s a small way to honor and give thanks this month to the land that nourishes and sustains us.
Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
- 1 butternut squash, halved and scooped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt, to taste
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1 whole head of garlic
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- 2 cups vegetable stock
- 2 cups water
- 1 14-oz can white beans, (cannellini or Great Northern)
Directions
- Heat oven to 425 degrees. Place butternut squash cut side up on a baking tray lined with parchment paper; drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt, and rub the curry powder on the squash. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
- Chop the top off of the head of garlic and drizzle on olive oil, followed by salt and pepper, to taste. Wrap up the whole head tightly in aluminum foil and place on the tray.
- Bake squash and garlic for 1 hour. When the squash is soft enough that a knife goes
easily through, take it out and scoop out squash (or chop it up if you want to use the
skin; it will blitz). - In a large pot, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil on medium heat. Add the onion and cook until the onion is soft and just starting to brown. Add the turmeric, pepper, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add the squash, and take out the head of garlic, squeezing the roasted garlic into the mixture. Add vegetable stock and water and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Use a blender to blitz everything in the stock pot, and then add the beans. Return the
soup to the pot on low heat, until ready to serve. Add black pepper and salt, to taste.
If you’re interested in making the seeds that are in the photo, you can. Just use the seeds of
your butternut squash, wash them, pat dry, and scatter onto a baking tray. I flavor mine with cumin and zaa’tar, a Middle Eastern spice mix that should be used in everything. But add whatever spices your heart desires. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes, until toasted.
For more information on how your food choices affect the planet and your health, go to:
harriscenter.org/rhp.