Bacon Jalapeno Winter Squash Soup

Woah. Posting two days in a row! WHAT?!

I have good reason...

Last night we resumed our Village Gardens Cooking Collective at the Village Market store. I met with five eager community members to cook and share a delightful winter meal together. In spite of some serious language barriers, we produced a beautiful blood orange kale salad and lots of winter squash soup.

The soup was stupid good. So I'm sharing the recipe with you because I'm nice like that. And I wrote this recipe, so I'm feeling proud of it.

Bacon Jalapeno Winter Squash Soup

Ingredients

• 2-3lbs Winter squash (acorn, butternut, hubbard)
• 6 strips uncured bacon, cut into 1/2inch pieces (be sure to save the fat after cooking)
• 2 jalapeno, deseeded and diced
• 1 sweet onion, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 apple, cored and chopped
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. pepper
• 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 cup heavy cream or full-fat coconut milk

 

Directions

·       Preheat oven to 400F. While oven is preheating, prep all ingredients.

·       In a large soup pot, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp.

·       While bacon is cooking, halve and remove innards from squash. Cut into quarters.

·       When bacon is finished, remove and set aside. Carefully pour remaining fat into small bowl to use later in recipe.

·       Add two tablespoons of rendered bacon fat back to soup pot. Add sliced squash and stir well to coat.

·       Dump oiled squash onto a large rimmed baking sheet and place in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Cook until fork tender and browned on top.

·       Add remaining fat to soup pan and sauté the onions, jalapeno, and carrots over medium heat until onions are translucent and carrots begin to soften. Stir frequently so not to burn.

·       Add garlic and remaining spices, stir to coat and cook for another 1-2 minutes, until fragrant.

·       Reduce heat to low and add diced apple and chicken stock and cover pot.

·       Remove squash from oven. Let stand for a few minutes to cool then carefully remove skins from squash.

·       Add squash to soup pot and bring to contents to a  boil 

·        Once boiling, reduce heat and let simmer 10-15 minutes for flavors to meld and squash to get squishy.

·       Using an immersion blender, puree soup until smooth

·       Slowly pour in coconut milk or heavy cream and stir to incorporate.

·       Serve soup with crumbled bacon pieces on top!