Butternut-Chickpea Soup with Thyme Croutons

Every year, thanks to Thanksgiving and Christmas, I always get it in my head that food is a free-for-all. What little self-control I had around sweets completely vanishes when I spy Thanksgiving leftovers in the fridge at midnight, or plate of Christmas cookies magically appears on the table in front of me. Even the normally healthier foods in my diet get in on the trend. Sweet potatoes, typically eaten plain the rest of the year, now must absolutely have marshmallows and brown sugar to be considered appropriate for my plate.

These seasonal foods make such a short appearance every year that I feel the need to stuff myself to the brim in hopes that it will tide me over until next year. And by the looks of the scale, it works.

Thankfully, with all of the sweets, cookies, stuffings, gravies, and treats, I have one respite – butternut squash. I love that I can get all the flavors of the season in a healthy yet satisfying dish (and I can eat as much as I want without feeling too guilty – ok, we’re still working on the self-control part, I guess).

I still had one butternut squash lying around from a few weeks ago when they were on sale. With my other squash, I made butternut squash and shrimp risotto and toasted the seeds as a little snack. This time I was craving soup. A feel-good-warms-you-from-the-inside-out-without-making-me-feel-guilty-about-eating-the-whole-pot kind of soup.

As I mentioned a little bit ago, I was adopted by a veteran blogger, who runs Hopie’s Kitchen. There I found a recipe for a butternut chickpea soup with thyme croutons that I just had to try. I adjusted the recipe only slightly, and that was simply because I had a whole butternut squash to use versus the half of one called for in the recipe. I also used homemade turkey stock we had in our freezer so that I can finally say we used it up! It turned the soup a beautiful auburn color, too, because the homemade stock is so much darker than chicken stock. A bowl of this just screams autumn to me.

This soup was like a warm hug, or wearing a snuggie. It is very filling, more than I’d expect, and the croutons with a hint of thyme provides a perfect crunch to the silky smooth soup.

After all the cookie, candy and cake recipes I posted these past two weeks, I figured I owed it to myself - and to you - to provide at least one recipe for something that is good, and good for you! Here's the way to start your New Year off, right!



Butternut-Chickpea Soup with Thyme Croutons
Adapted From Hopie's Kitchen

The following recipe is the original, my notes are in italics.

Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped used a small sweet onion
3 garlic cloves, chopped used five because I was making a little more soup with a whole squash instead of half
1 tsp ground cumin omitted because apparently I haven’t restocked my pantry recently, I should get on that
1 tsp ground coriander
a pinch of nutmeg
a pinch of cayenne
1/2 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed used one medium butternut squash
5 cups chicken or vegetable stock (more or less depending on how thick you want it) I probably used a little more, I didn’t measure exactly because the stock was previously frozen and I just dumped it all in the pot, but the ratio was perfect, not too thick, not too lose
1 (425ml) can of chickpeas, drained I think my can was 16 ounces
Heavy cream I used sour cream

For the croutons:
1 cup bread cut into cubes (a little stale is perfect) I used ciabbata
1 Tbsp shortening (Butter or olive oil is good too.)
1 tsp fresh thyme, minced

Heat the olive oil in a large pot and soften the onions for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another few minutes. Add the cumin, coriander, nutmeg and cayenne and stir well for 1 minute. Add the cubes of butternut squash and pour in the stock. Bring to a boil, cover, lower the heat and simmer until the squash is tender (about 20 minutes).

In the meantime, heat the shortening for the croutons in a frying pan. When hot, sprinkle in the thyme and then the bread. Stir well and cook on medium-high, stirring occasionally, until the pieces of bread start to brown. Remove from heat and set aside.

When the squash is tender, add the chickpeas to the soup and heat through. Blend the soup. Serve with a dollop of heavy cream in each bowl and a sprinkling of croutons.

Butternut Squash and Shrimp Risotto

This is a meal I’ve made before, and thanks to autumn finally arriving and butternut squash being on sale, I decided it would be fun to make it again. After having made it by the recipe the first time around, I decided it might be fun to tweak with it a little bit this time. After peeling the shrimp, I put all the shells into the vegetable broth and simmered that for about 30 minutes to infuse some of the shrimp flavor into the broth before using. I used about half of a 187ml bottle of pinot grigio wine (approximately equal to six-seven tablespoons) in my pot with the rice first, before adding any of my broth to get a little more flavor into the rice as it cooked. I ended up not even replacing the liquid in the recipe for the wine, I just added it in addition to the four cups of broth, and it still turned out fine.

One of the nice things about this dish is that it is not as fussy as a classic risotto. Yes, you do have to stand next to it a stir it nearly the entire time it cooks, but you don’t have to mess with adding the liquid in increments – just pour it all in at once and stir. Even better? It’s a one-pot meal. Cleanup was a breeze, which is especially nice when you have company and want something delicious for dinner, but don’t want to spend the rest of the evening cleaning up afterwards.

I served this risotto with crusty Italian bread and a dish with olive oil, parmesan and pepper for dipping, as well as a green salad.

(And don't forget to save the seeds from your squash to make Toasted Butternut Squash Seeds!)

Butternut Squash Risotto with Shrimp

Adapted From Bon Appetit

6 servings

Ingredients
3 ounces pancetta (Italian bacon), chopped
1 pound large uncooked deveined peeled shrimp, with shells set aside (if available)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped (about 1 3/4 cups)
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 cup short-grain rice (such as arborio or carnaroli)
4 cups vegetable broth, heated in microwave
½ c Dry White Wine
1 1-pound package peeled butternut squash, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (about 3 cups)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
1/4 cup whipping cream
Preparation
If you have your shrimp shells, put them in a both with your broth and let them simmer over low to medium-low heat for 20 minutes or so.

Sauté pancetta in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat until fat renders and pancetta is browned and almost crisp. Using slotted spoon, transfer to medium bowl.

Sprinkle shrimp with salt and pepper; add to saucepan. Sauté until browned and just opaque in center, about 3 minutes. Add to bowl with pancetta.

Add oil to same saucepan, then onion and garlic; cook until onion is translucent, stirring often, about 5 minutes.

Add rice; stir 1 minute. Add wine and stir until mostly absorbed. Add hot broth; increase heat and bring to boil.

Add squash and sage; reduce heat to medium and simmer until rice is tender but still firm to bite and mixture is creamy, stirring often, about 15 minutes. Stir in cream, shrimp, and pancetta. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Transfer to large shallow bowl.