Thanksgiving Tradition, or, the soup blog lives!

Anything can become a tradition if you repeat it enough times.

That’s certainly the the case for this soup. Creamy with butternut squash, pungent with onions and curry powder (yet not overwhelmingly so), lightly sweet with apple. It’s made an appearance on our Thanksgiving table for ten years running, and its relative simplicity makes it a perfect foil to the complement of complicated, heavy dishes that usually pop up alongside.

Without further ado, here’s our Newman family tradition.

Curried Butternut Squash-Apple Soup, adapted from The Silver Palate Cookbook
4 Tbsp butter
2 finely chopped yellow onions
About 1.5 Tbsp curry powder
2 small to medium butternut squashes
3 Granny Smith or other tart apples
3 cups chicken or veggie broth/stock
2 cups apple juice
Salt (plenty) and pepper

Melt butter in a soup pot over low heat. Add onions and curry powder, stir well to combine, and cook over low heat about 25 minutes, stirring regularly. This should smell ridiculously good.

Meanwhile, peel, seed, and chop the squash. Peel, core, and chop two of the apples. After 25 minutes, add to pot along with broth. Bring just to a boil, cover, reduce heat, and simmer until squash is falling-apart tender. This will take more or less time depending on how finely you’ve diced the squash; for me, it usually takes another 25 minutes or so.

If you are blessed with an immersion blender, use it to purée the soup in situ until very smooth. If you are not so blessed, put a large colander over a bowl and strain the soup, retaining the cooking liquid. Put the solids in a food processor (in batches if necessary), add a cup or so of the cooking liquid, and purée until very smooth. Return to pot.

Stir in apple juice and return soup to low heat. If you used a food processor, add another cup to two cups of cooking liquid until soup is of an agreeable consistency. Heat through, stirring frequently. While reheating, shred the (unpeeled) third apple. Taste soup and season generously with salt and pepper.

Garnish each serving of hot soup with an attractive sprinkling of shredded apple (and maybe even a swirl of creme fraiche, should you be feeling super fancy). Mmm, tradition!