Squash & Wild Rice Soup with Lemon-Ginger-Rosemary Butter for Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammie) Sundays

This week at I Heart Cooking Clubs we are rolling out a new Monthly Featured Ingredient theme where a dish or ingredient is selected and we can choose any recipe featuring it from our current or previous IHCC chefs to find the best recipes out there. November's ingredient is squash and I found what just may be my new favorite squah soup recipe from Heidi Swanson's Near and Far cookbook; Squash and Wild Rice Soup with Lemon-Ginger-Rosemary Butter. 
 

With all of the components and flavors, this soup becomes a delicious and satisfying meal in a bowl that is perfect for a fall evening.   

Squash & Wild Rice Soup (with Lemon-Ginger-Rosemary Butter)
From Near & Far by Heidi Swanson
(Serves 4-6)

For the Lemon, Ginger, & Rosemary Butter:

1/2 cup unsalted butter

chopped rosemary leaves from one 4-inch sprig

zest of 1 lemon

1 tsp grated ginger

scant 1/4 tsp of fine-grain sea salt

For the soup:

1/4 cup unsalted butter

2 medium onions, cut into eighths

2 large shallots, halved

1 whole Serrano chili, stemmed

1 Tbsp sea salt

about 2 1/2 lbs of diced pumpkin cut into 3/4-inch pieces (I used kabocha squash)

9 cups water or veggie broth (or less—see Heidi's notes in recipe below)

2 tsp fresh ginger juice (or finely grated ginger)

2 to 4 cups cooked wild rice, to serve

plain yogurt and toasted pepitas, to serve

To make the butter: heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it browns slightly-- about 3 minutes or so. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the rosemary, lemon zest, ginger, and salt. Stir well and let sit for 5 minutes. Strain the butter, while reserving the pulp to serve separately. Set both aside.

To make the soup: melt the butter in a large soup pot over medium-high heat.

Add the onion, shallots, Serrano chili, and salt. Cook about 5 minutes, until softened. Add in the pumpkin and the water or broth (you can use less liquid if you like a thicker soup but Heidi recommends this soup be on the thinner side.) and bring to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the squash is tender enough to cut through. (Time will vary based on the type of squash you use.)

Blend, using an immersion blender or in batches in a high-speed blender. Add in the ginger juice (or grated ginger) and continue to blend until smooth. Taste and season with extra salt and black pepper if desired. 

To Serve: Serve soup with a scoop of wild rice and a large dollop of Greek yogurt. Drizzle with the Lemon-Ginger-Rosemary Butter, a bit of the reserved pulp, and some toasted pepitas. Enjoy!

Notes/Results: Although this soup has a few different components to put together--the soup base, the flavored butter, toasting the pepitas and cooking some wild rice if you don't have any on hand, it goes together easily and the taste is worth the extra effort. The soup itself is a nice combination of the sweet squash, some heat from the serrano chili, and the slight bite of the fresh ginger. It is very good on its own, but add the wild rice, tangy yogurt, toasted pumpkin seeds and the wonderful Lemon-Ginger-Rosemary Butter, it becomes amazing. Truly one of my favorite squash soups ever--warming, satisfying and tasty. I would definitely make it again. 

You can see what delicious squash recipes the other IHCC participants made by following the picture links on the post.
 

 
We have some good friends in the Souper Sundays kitchen who shared some delicious dishes last week--let's have a look!

Debra of Eliot's Eats shares this Southwest Quinoa and Kale Salad with NM Red Chile Vinaigrette and said, "Still, it remains to be seen if we make our (usual) yearly trek to Northern New Mexico. So, I am still wistfully thinking about our past trips and posting a few pictures as I revisit our past journeys. This salad is inspired by the leftover NM dried chiles from my pantry.   It is also inspired by a Starbucks salad that I had to pick up for lunch last week. It was pretty tasty, but I thought I could improve on it. I have to say that this salad was much more delicious than the $6 one I bought at Starbucks."

Joyce of Kitchen Flavours made Heidi Swanson's Summer Squash Soup and said, "This curry dish uses Thai red curry paste, adjusting the amount to your taste. I've used about four full tablespoons. Firm tofu are cut into cubes, then pan-fried in a skillet with a little oil until golden brown to make tofu croutons, which is then used as a garnish before serving. I've added some rice vermicelli to make a one bowl meal. Garnish with some chopped red chillies and chopped coriander with a calamansi lime from my garden pot. The lime is squeezed over the noodle soup before digging in!"

Johanna of Green Gourmet Giraffe brings Vegan Avgolemono --Greek Easter Lemon Soup and says, "Gina of The Full Helping, devised this variation to recreate the soup from the Greek Easters of her childhood.  I've never had the traditional version that relies heavily on eggs.  For me, I just love the creaminess of the tahini, the substance of the veggies and rice, and the fresh flavours of the lemon and dill."

Tina of Squirrel Head Manor shared her Gumbo for a Cool Autumn Evening and said, "...one of the things I do like are the autumn temperatures and a good bowl of gumbo. Nothing like a warming meal when the temps get cooler.  So that's what I am going to talk about now. In the past I was eating sausage but now that I'm not consuming any porcine products, I have substituted a TVP (textured vegetable protein) to accommodate our vegetarian menus. ...We also had a homemade French bread for sopping up the lovely juices."

Mahalo to everyone who joined in this week! 

Souper Sundays is back with a new format of a picture link each week where anyone interested can post their soups, salads, or sandwiches any time during the week and I post a recap of the entries the following week.)

(If you aren't familiar with Souper Sundays, you can read about of the origins of it here. 

If you would like to join in Souper (Soup, Salad, and Sammie) Sundays, I would love to have you! Here's how...

To join in this week's linkup with your soup, salad or sandwich:

• Link up your soup (stew, chili, soupy curries, etc. are fine), salad, or sandwich dish, (preferably one from the current week or month--but we'll take older posts too) on the picture link below and leave a comment on this post so I am sure not to miss you.

On your entry post (on your blog):

• please mention Souper (Soup, Salad & Sammies) Sundays at Kahakai Kitchen and link back to this post.
• you are welcome to add the wonderful Souper Sundays logo (created by Ivy at Kopiaste) to your post and/or blog (optional).

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a happy, healthy week!