Yearnings for leaves in reds and yellows will have to wait.

While the rest of the country is easing into crisp autumn air and changing leaves, in Los Angeles that season known as fall is more elusive.  It may be months until we’re regularly donning sweaters and scarves (and umbrellas since winter means rainy season).  Still, these past few days we’ve  been graced with weather in the seventies, which is a cool reprieve from the summer scorchers we’ve had up until recently.  I took the opportunity to enjoy the delights of squash season with the oil-free, soy-free, and wheat-free Butternut Squash Soup from The Vegan Table.

This mouthwatering soup would be great for a busy weeknight since it practically makes itself.  Just take five or ten minutes on Sunday before your busy work week gets started to cut up squash, onions, garlic, and ginger.  Then when you come home from work on Monday or Tuesday night, start the onions sizzling while you change into cozy clothes, add in the garlic and ginger and let it sauté while you dice a couple of potatoes and pull a hearty loaf of bread out of the refrigerator.  Finally, add the squash and potatoes to your soup pot with some water, and you can relax for thirty minutes while your soup is doing the hard work.  About fifteen minutes in if you feel like chopping a big, delicious salad, well, all the better.  Toast chunks of bread in the oven or toaster, and you have a healthy and satisfying meal.

Oftentimes people who don’t cook aren’t inclined to buy kitchen gadgets because it seems like a waste to spend money on something they never do.  I think this is ill advised.  Cooking is so much more pleasurable with the proper tools.  Just like when we were kids and the smell and feel of a new box of crayons inspired us to put color to page, a new kitchen toy can make what is a necessary chore seem like fun.  Although this soup can be made without any fancy gadgets, I used the opportunity to play with a few of my favorite kitchen tools, from simple to sophisticated.

I started with my standard peeler.  My preferred method for preparing a butternut squash is first by peeling it with a vegetable peeler while it’s still whole.  Then I cut it vertically and scoop out the seeds.  (Sometimes I wash the seeds to roast later for a snack or to make squash seed crusted tofu.)  At that point it’s easy to cut the squash into squares for use in a soup or to lightly coat in extra virgin olive oil, put on a parchment paper covered cookie sheet, and roast at 425 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes, tossing occasionally throughout.

The second gadget in my toolbox is my Microplane zester.  The zester is similar to a grater, but it makes light and wispy grates, perfect for zesting lemons, limes, or oranges, or in this case, using on ginger.  It’s sold in a plastic sleeve that’s great for storing.  The peel on ginger is so thin, you can simply use a spoon to scrape it off before grating.  Consider storing ginger in the freezer.  Then when you want to grate it, it won’t fall apart in big feathery shreds.  Plus, it will keep there for a long time, ready to be used in your next stir-fry, curry, or for a simple ginger tea.

Lastly, when the squash and potatoes were fully cooked, I used my immersion blender to finish this creamy soup.  I have a traditional blender as well, but I love my immersion blender when making soups.  It saves you from transferring the hot soup to the blender and then back again.  Using a traditional blender can especially be a hassle if you only want part of the soup blended.  With an immersion blender, you can simply put the wand into the soup pot and blend it as much as you like.  In this particular recipe it directs you to fully blend the soup, but I wanted a few chunks left for mouth feel.  So I blended until it was thick and creamy but with a few remaining bites of squash and potatoes.  Very inexpensive immersion blenders can be found that will still do the trick beautifully.

There’s nothing quite like a warm, brimming bowl of soup to start cravings for fuzzy blankets and soft mittens…  Of course, the folks on the news are reporting weather this weekend in the high nineties.  I’d better enjoy my soup while it lasts…