Wegmans Butternut Squash Soup

Our butternut squash soup starts out with a combination
of ingredients: celery, onions, and leeks,
all chopped up like this.
And what we really call that when they´re combined together
is a mirepoix.
And really the purpose of a mirepoix is to help build flavor in a dish,
in soups and stews, etc.
So you sauté that at the very beginning
before you add your main ingredient.
Now you can chop all those things up together
or you can buy them conveniently already chopped like this
for you in a package.
Now the main ingredients, of course, in our butternut squash soup
is butternut squash which normally looks like this.
It´s hard, it´s hard to cut into,
it has to be peeled, and it has to be seeded.
You can do all that, fine,
or you can save yourself some time
and buy it already done for you in this convenient package.
Foods You Feel Good About Vegetable Culinary Stock
is developed by our own chefs
using all natural ingredients
and it´s much lower in sodium than any canned broth
so it´s also better for you.
In this soup pot, I already have a tablespoon
of olive oil heating up on medium.
To that I´m going to add
about eight ounces of chopped onions
and some thinly sliced celery, about four ounces.
Another four ounces or so of thinly sliced leeks,
the white part only.
A little bit of minced garlic right here.
And two bay leaves for some nice flavor.
I use that usually in most of my soups.
And we´re gonna season that with a little bit of salt and pepper.
And I´m gonna let that cook for about ten minutes
until the veggies are wilted but not browned.
The veggies are nice and wilted
so in goes the main ingredient.
In this case, it´s butternut squash
and I´ve cut these up into small pieces,
about one inched dice.
It´s important that they be in even pieces
so they cook evenly and cook quicker.
So now in goes the vegetable stock.
I´m adding two containers of the vegetable stock
and when that´s all in, I´m going to bring that to a simmer.
Cover it, just partially vented like this.
And then once it´s come to a simmer,
reduce the temperature to low
and let that simmer very, very gently
for about 25 minutes until the vegetables are tender.
Alright, it´s been about 25 minutes
and I know that the vegetables are very tender.
So I´m gonna turn off the heat
and remove the bay leaves.
Because those won´t blend up.
We don´t want that.
And to that, we´re adding about
two tablespoons of maple syrup.
You can adjust this to taste, of course,
depending on how you like it.
And I´m going to blend this now to purée it.
You can either do this by transferring this
by batches to a blender or you can use the immersion blender
and do it right in the pot until it´s nice and smooth
and well mixed up and puréed.
Alright, that´s nice and smooth.
Just the way I want it.
Now for the finishing touch.
Let´s ladle some into our bowl
because we´re ready to serve.
Oh, this is a great color.
Wonderful texture.
Let´s finish this up with a little garnish.
I´m adding to this a slight drizzle
of pumpkin seed oil and some toasted pumpkin seeds.
Just enough to give it a little bit of a crunch and bite
when you bite into that.
I think of this as comfort food
for a cold winter evening and it has wonderful robust flavor
from the addition of the pumpkin seeds
and the pumpkin oil.