
My little brother is sick.
Ok, so he’s not little, but he is my brother. These are two things I must constantly remind myself.
He is perfectly capable of taking care of himself, and I’m not his mom.
Nevertheless, as his manang, or “older sister,” I can’t help but want to make sure he is provided with things that could help him get better.
Medicine. A thermometer. Soup.

Part of his illness is a dry cough. He has congestion, but stubborn mucous won’t come out. So I decided to make spicy soups of sorts, such as today’s feature, smoky southwestern butternut squash soup.


Butternut squash is one of those wonderful foods so full of vitamins (and low in calories! though that doesn’t matter for a sore throat). This recipe also calls for apples, which gives it an additional texture and a subtle sweetness usually brought forth from honey or a sweeter squash. I used what we had on hand – golden delicious. Definitely- this looks like a typical autumn-ish food, but today seems fitting – it’s rainy, windy, chilly. It’s as autumnal as we’d get in the tropics… yes, in April.

The measurements in this recipe are pretty rough, and like most every soup, can be customized to your palette’s content. I like to put other things in it (black beans, corn, cabbage), and make it a chunky soup, but bro isn’t too big of a fan of black beans. So I opted out and blended it a little smoother to get the jalapeño nicely integrated.


If you’re wondering how I attack the butternut squash, I typically microwave it for about 1:30 – 2 minutes. Then, I do as a pineapple: cut a smidge off of the top and the bottom, then peel all the way down. Afterwards, I chop off the neck, which is enough of what I needed for the soup. With the bottom half, I plan to make a vegetarian chili, then roast the seeds.


I probably should’ve kept it chunky- there is no way of taking a pretty picture of this blended mush apart from embellishing. In fact, bro’s soup bowl didn’t have any apples. He got his straight up.
But what can I say? I love the kid, but I’m his older sister, not his mom :)

SMOKY SOUTHWESTERN BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
INGREDIENTS:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup diced shallots
1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
2 apples, diced
3 cups butternut squash, cubed
3 cups stock (beef or vegetable)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon cocoa
1/4 teaspoon chipotle powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (to taste)
Optional vegetables:
1 can black beans, rinsed/drained
1 can corn
1/2 head cabbage, cubed
Warm the vegetable oil. Over medium heat, saute the garlic, shallots, and jalapeño until fragrant. Add the apples and squash and saute for a minute or two. Add about 1/2 cup of the broth and the spices to the vegetables and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the remainder 2 1/2 cups of broth and any additional vegetables. Once the soup comes to a boil, turn down the heat and let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes. Using a hand blender, pulse the soup a few times until you have the desired consistency. Or keep it chunky, and mash about a third of the soup with the back of the soup ladle to give it some thickness.
That’s it!
A nice, spicy soup.
With a cake batter ice cream milkshake for later.

kep.