Roasted Squash Bisque

Before we even get started, before you read any further, let me just say this: If you don't like roasted garlic, or just garlic in general, this bisque is most likely not for you. However, if you are a garlic lover such as myself or are even just toying with the idea of adding garlic, in particular the roasted kind, to your repertoire of foods, this recipe is for you, and it will feed your soul.

And one more thing: If you think you're not a garlic lover but have never tried roasted garlic, go ahead and try it. It's different than raw garlic... It's smoother, nuttier and a bit sweeter. I'm in love with it, myself, but to each his/her own.

That said, I must confess: I've been a bad, bad girl. I took something as beautiful and pure and healthy as homemade, pureed carnival squash, and I corrupted it. I added butter. I added salt. And I added -- I get happy little shivers down my spine just thinking about it -- heavy cream.

And then you know what I did? I added bacon. That's right. I added bacon.

Feel free (like it's my job to tell you what you can do) to downsize the caloric intake by substituting half & half or milk if you like, and skipping the bacon altogether. I have a feeling you might just come out with a pretty darned good little soup of your own. But we've got winter bearing down on us here and I just feel the need to bulk up, particularly my thighs and gut, so that's what I'm a'doin'.

This all began with some of these little characters, carnival squash...

 

Learn how to roast and puree them here. For now the pureed squash can be set aside. We've got a few other things to deal with first.

First, chop up four small carrots and one small red onion, sprinkle them with 1/4 tsp. salt, and saute them on medium heat in 1/4 cup of butter until just starting to brown, until they look just exactly like this:

 

Then add three cups of chicken stock and keep pot on medium heat, letting the vegetables simmer in the broth until they are tender. Add three cups of carnival squash puree, 1/4 tsp. thyme, and 1 tsp. roasted garlic. (Learn how I roasted the garlic here.)

Whisk all together well (you want to make sure you distribute the garlic evenly or somebody is going to be in for a bit of a surprise when they realize they're sucking on a lump of roasted garlic. Or a treat, in my case.) Turn heat to medium low and allow soup simmer, continuing to whisk, for about five minutes.

I like to leave the carrots and onion 'as is' in this soup, i.e. not puree them. I personally like little chunks to bite into, even in a smooth, creamy soup like this, otherwise I feel like I'm eating baby food.

Now this is where the corruption becomes absolute, where the squash goes from just dabbling with hanging around with pound-packing characters (a.k.a. the butter) to full-on rebellion and complete artery clogging capabilities. This is where we add the heavy cream.

And much like the rest of this recipe, it couldn't be easier. Simply turn off your burner, pour in one cup of heavy cream, and whisk until blended. It just shouldn't be this easy to make something this decadent. But it is. So I am. And you should too.

Aside from sprinkling the soup with crumbled bacon and roasted squash seeds, that's pretty much all there is to it, with the exception of one more optional, fun step... When I roasted and pureed the carnival squash, I saved two larger squash halves and only scooped a little bit of the pulp out of them, leaving some pulp behind to help them retain their shape. Now I can use them as soup bowls to achieve new heights of food presentation, like this:

 

Now that's pretty. And it's functional. And it tastes good. And we've used just about every part of the squash that we can. If that's not farm style values, I don't know what is.

Eat. Enjoy. Then go for a five mile hike and you will have totally redeemed yourself. I know that's what I'm going to do. ;)