Fall Cooking: Homemade Butternut Squash and Ginger Soup

Hello fine readers.  It was just days ago that I did a late post on C's birthday meal.  In the spirit of authenticity, I'm trying to get my thoughts down while they are fresh on the brain.  With that said, I figured now is a good a time as any to  recap on tonight's first authentic Fall home-cooked dinner.

As far as Atlanta dining goes, I love Dynamic Dish. Unfortunately, their strange hours and almost lunch-only options (on the opposite side of town from my job) leave me little time to get over there to eat.  Instead,  I read the menus daily on Twitter, longingly.  The first and only time I ate there, I remember a celeriac and ginger soup with pumpkinseed oil.  It was delicious.  Since funds are somewhat low and this little piggy just took a Sunday trip to the Farmer's Market, I decided to try a twist on that soup with butternut squash.  I'll admit, I was a bit apprehensive about cooking butternut squash again.  Of all of the vegetables in the world, butternut squash and I don't have the best track record.  Years ago, I was cutting open one the vegetable in question to make "butternut squash fries" (sliced and baked with a sprinkle of salt, they make a tasty snack akin to sweet potato fries) and the knife caught and I sliced my thumb open.  I've been afraid of the vegetable ever since.  Now, years later (and older and wiser) I have a better knife and took on the squash like a pro...well, sort of.  I got the cutting down this time, but the peeling is quite tricky.  (In hindsight, I left a lot of the flesh attached to the peel, but better safe than sorry, right?)

I loosely followed Food Network's Butternut Squash Soup recipe, but added ginger to the mix.  I had already bought the ingredient on Sunday and when Eric Ripert mentioned it in a Tweet, I had no choice but to follow my foodie fate.  After cooking chopped onions down for 10 minutes in (admittedly) more butter than the recipe called for, I started the process of the soup.  I added minced ginger in the end (again, not sparingly, probably a tablespoon) and cooked the soup down after pureeing the squash until it thickened a bit.  Instead of nutmeg, I opted for coriander.  I cannot tell you how much I adore coriander.  It's nutty in such a subtle way.  After cooling, I served and topped with fresh cilantro and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.  (Excuse the dribble on the bowl-- I am a home cook, after all.)

As for the butternut squash seeds, you didn't think I'd let those go to waste, did you?  Preheat the oven to 300 degrees, clean and coat in melted butter and salt and roast for 45 minutes. Voila! They don't call it the butternut pumpkin for nothing ;)

There you have it. If I can conquer my butternut squash fears, so can you...(or whatever other vegetable fears you may have.)  This season has some amazing ingredients. Get thee to a Farmer's Market and start cooking!