This is a season of complicated recipes and heavy eating. So in the narrow interstices between friendsgivings, Thanksgiving, holiday parties, cookie exchanges, and dinners with extended family, it can be wonderful to enjoy a simple meal.

 

But simple shouldn’t have to mean that you leave the table hungry. Nor should it mean opting for a salad, when, as temperatures drop, what you’re really craving is a hot meal. And as much as I love pasta for a quick feed, I can’t have it many nights in a row.

Enter this curried butternut squash and apple soup. It is indeed simple: just butternut squash, apples, onions, garlic, curry powder, a dash of port, and pine nuts to top it off. Yet it satisfies as deeply in the winter as a simple caprese salad does in the summer. Served with a hunk of baguette and a green salad, it’s easily a full meal–yet it doesn’t leave you so heavy that you can’t have a piece of nice cheese (or one of those Christmas cookies that always seem to be lying around this time of year) for dessert.

And in a season full of travel plans, I appreciate that I can ladle a few servings into mason jars, chuck them in the freezer, and know that a proper meal will be waiting for me when I return home in a few weeks’ time.

 

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Six-ish months ago: Fettuccine with Rosemary and Lemon (a sleeper hit and the simple meal of the summer)
One year ago: Hearty Kale Salad with Apples, Cheddar, and Almonds (a.k.a. The Salad Without Which I Am Not Allowed to Arrive at Thanksgiving)

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Curried butternut squash and apple soup

Serves 6-8
Adapted from an early 2000s recipe, saved by my mom, on the now-defunct Meals.com

Ingredients

4 tablespoons (57 grams) butter
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons curry powder
3 pounds (1.36 kilograms) butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped (easy peeling and chopping instructions here, or buy pre-chopped at Trader Joe’s)
46 ounces (1.36 liters) vegetable stock
2 large tart green apples, roughly peeled, cored and chopped
2 tablespoons port (see notes)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted (see notes)

Instructions

Heat the butter in a stock pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until softened, stirring often enough to ensure that they don’t burn. Add the garlic, curry powder, and salt. Cook, stirring, for one minute.

Add the vegetable broth, squash, and apple to the pot. Cover and cook until squash is soft, about 20 minutes. (The smaller you chopped the squash, the faster it will cook.) Take soup off heat.

Now you have to make a choice depending on what kitchen appliances you have.

If you have an immersion blender, blend the soup with the stick attachment of your immersion blender.

If you only have an upright blender: transfer the soup to the blender. (You may have to do this in two or three batches, depending on the size of your blender.) Place the lid on the blender, but remove the plug on top of the lid. Place a dish towel over the now-semi-open lid. Blend until smooth. (Why the closed lid with open plug? If you kept the plug in, the heat in the blender could cause the entire lid to come flying off while the motor is running, painting your kitchen Pollock-style in bright orange soup.)

Transfer the pureed soup back to stock pot, if necessary. Stir in the port and the black pepper. Ladle into soup bowls and garnish with pine nuts.

Notes

On butternut squash: The most budget-friendly way to do this is to chop the squash yourself. If you’re in a real rush, however, many stores (including Trader Joe’s) sell pre-peeled and chopped butternut squash.

On port: The port adds a nice depth to this soup. I always have it around–a bottle of the cheap stuff only costs about eight dollars, and I go through it so slowly, so it feels budget-friendly. If you want to try substituting something else, you could read this article to try to pick a winner. Otherwise, you can skip it.

On pine nuts: Don’t skip these! They add so much to the soup in terms of textural contrast and nutty flavor. Trader Joe’s offers them in a big bag for a reasonable price. Use some for this and the rest in pesto or on salads!