Rustic is a good choice for describing this soup.  It is also the result of me not having my immersion blender handy as I took it back down to the southern household last week….dang it.

But, as things typically happen for a reason, not having the blender made for a rustic (think chunky) soup that was loaded with texture.  Texture being one of those elements Chopped judges pine for on tv.

This past weekend was rainy….and windy….and cold….and did I mention rainy? Yes, it was extremely rainy.  So rainy that hubby almost started building an ark.  Therefore it was excellent planning on my part to pack a butternut squash into the cooler the day we drove up.  The squash, combined with fresh, home-grown heirloom carrots from my garden, was to become a delectable and tasty, rustic soup.  Perfect for a crappy weather weekend.

I started out by roasting the squash in the oven, along with the carrots.  I didn’t peel the carrots either as this also lends to the whole rustic theme.  Besides, most of the nutrients are in the skin of vegetables and fruit anyway, so why waste them.  I tossed a small garlic bulb also from the garden in with the carrots, then, with a splash of olive oil and a quick toss, they went into the oven with the squash.

An hour later, the veggies were all soft and caramelized and the house smelling like Fall. I pulled them out of the oven and let cool for about an hour.

I rough sliced the carrots into a bowl then scooped out the squash flesh and squeezed out the roasted garlic cloves and dumped them in with the carrots.  Next up, a potato masher to smoosh everything together.  This was to be soup for the next day, so I just covered up the bowl with plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

In the morning, I took the bowl out of the fridge to let the veggies come to room temp.  Meanwhile, seeing as I was up at the northern homestead and nary a frozen container of veggie stock in sight, I had to resort to using a Knorr veggie cube (gasp! I know, blasphemy!).  I added it to 3 cups of boiling water to dissolve, then added it to the squash/carrot mixture.  After a few minutes of combining, or rather, trying to combine the stuff, I had a thought….I don’t have my immersion blender, but I do have a hand mixer, let’s see what that does….

Bad idea….I am still cleaning bits of pulverized veggies off the walls and floor and out of my hair.  I even had the smarts to place the bowl in the sink before starting up the mixer.  It did contain some of the splatter at least…some being the operative word.

After abandoning the mixer, the soup went into a pot and was heated up to almost boiling.  Toss in a half teaspoon of black pepper and about 2 teaspoons of fresh snipped parsley and voila!  Lunch is served.

Rustic is the new chic…don’t you agree?

Deborah

P.S.  I didn’t add any salt as the veggie bouillon cube is loaded with sodium.  I didn’t measure any of the ingredients either, just take a medium sized butternut squash and about a dozen small carrots (about 6″ in length) and 4 cloves of garlic.  Most often, this type of slapdash cooking results in a memorable dish, so let your creativity flow.