Bright Orange Soup

After years of trips to the windy city to visit the South Side Irish, I've learned to expect slumber-parties, leg wrestling, gregarious cousins, wise cracking grandpas and way too much pizza.  When you gather 50 relatives in one house, the easiest way to feed them all, is to order a slew of pizzas.   After years of visiting my in-laws, I thought pizza was just a part of the whole experience, until one Christmas Eve when we gathered at the Dillon's house.  As soon as I walked in their house, I recognized the smell of orange vegetables.

Having grown up the daughter of a sweet potato farmer, my mom was well versed in preparing them. Because my mom was concerned about her fair skinned children getting enough Vitamin A, we were sure to have an orange vegetable with each of our meals, especially in the wintertime.  Not only were we assuring adequate Vitamin A intake, we were also sure to not be too pale.  Did you know that if you eat enough orange vegetables, you can actually turn orange?  For a fair-skinned redhead, orange can pass as tan.

So, when I stepped into the Dillon's home, I walked straight to the kitchen to see what yam dish was cooking.   And there I found the most vibrant orange colored soup; such a refreshing change from the regular pizza dinner!  I've since made this soup countless times.  It's a great blended soup,  it can be made with just about any orange vegetable.  I've used sweet potatoes, delicata squash, acorn squash, carrots, and butternut.  My favorite combination is below.  Enjoy!

Bright Orange Soup

The best and most brilliantly colored soup. It’s best served with some fresh, warm pumpernickel bread.

Servings: (matters how well you like it) 2-8 servings

3 T butter
1 butternut squash, "peeled" and cubed
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
1# carrots, cut evenly
*substitute orange vegetable that you have

3 cups broth
1/2 tsp chili flakes
salt to taste

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375. 

Place all veggies and butter (cut throughout) in a casserole pan and bake until soft (usually about 30-40minutes). 

Put vegetables in a pot along with the chili flakes and vegetable (or chicken) broth.  Place all ingredients in a food processor/blender with broth.  I prefer to use an inversion blender to prevent an orange kitchen.  

Serve immediately!
  
 

 

for easy peeling, bake the entire squash at 350 for 15 minutes

 

beautiful mix of sweet potatoes, carrots, and butternut squash (and butter)

my favorite kitchen tool in use: the inversion blender