Simply in Season: Butternut Squash White Bean Soup

Butternut Squash is one of my favorite autumn squashes. It's the sweetness of it that really does it for me. While browsing the online Sweet Paul magazine a couple weeks ago, I came across this incredible recipe for butternut squash white bean soup. It looked a bit time consuming, but I really wanted to try it out anyway. So after scooping up some squash from the market, I stayed in sunday simmering up some goodness.

A tip from the farmer's market: you want to buy the squash that don't have what I like to call, bootys but are rather as slim as possible. They have less seeds. I always seem to go for the bootylicious ones.

I had never cooked beans before so I followed the instructions on the bag to soak them and then cooked them with the homemade chicken stock I made and posted yesterday.

The recipe calls for bacon and it really does give the soup a distinct certain taste but this soup can very easily go vegetarian without the bacon.

I realized as I was making this soup that it was a spin on a classic Polish bean soup called fasolka (fah-soul-kah). I grew up with this soup at home because it was my dad's favorite. The traditional one is a bit simpler and also has ham in it to make it a little richer. In this one, the squash, wine, and apricot preserves make it a little more updated and young. Now, I'm cooking it up for my aussie and he says it's the "best one yet." I highly recommend you try it.

I'll tell you a little secret, too, and you can judge me as you will, but I've had this soup as leftovers for 2 days now and it only gets better in time. When the flavors meld together and do a little love dance it makes all the difference.

Let me know if you try the recipe! :)