Blending Into Fall
By: Shannon Smith | Category: Restaurants | Issue: October 2019
World traveler and professional chef, Shannon Smith, owner of Beads and Basil.
We are nearing that time of year when soup is the perfect medicine for the soul. The weather is cool and crisp, so what better thing to make for dinner than a hearty soup? There are many options and varieties of soups, but one of the easiest is what I call Blender Soup. To the bowl of a blender, you just add cooked vegetables, broth, some aromatics, and blend until smooth. I like to dress it up with fresh herbs or nuts, but it’s really important to choose fresh vegetables.
My favorite way to cook vegetables is by bathing them in olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roasting them in a hot oven for 30-40 minutes. Cook them long enough to get a little color, which just adds more flavor. This is where you can get creative, and make your own custom “blends”. My personal favorite is roasted butternut squash soup with an apple added to the blender for a touch of sweetness. Roasted carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, tomatoes and potatoes are great choices for taking the role of leading actor in blender soups.
Place the cooked veggies in the blender and add your choice of liquid, whether it’s chicken broth, vegetable broth, coconut milk, or a combination. Then you should add some aromatics, such as onions, garlic, ginger, lemongrass, fennel, peppers, and chile powder. If your fresh herbs are fading in the cooler weather, you can add smaller amounts of dried herbs like sage, oregano, thyme, or basil. Blend the ingredients until they’re smooth, adding more liquid if necessary. Pour into a saucepan and heat on the stove, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.
Ladle into bowls and garnish with herbs, chopped vegetables, cream, or chiles. The options are endless, and you can come up with your own recipes depending on what you have on hand, or enjoy the most. Here are my two favorite blender soup recipes using butternut squash and roasted tomatoes. Find more soup recipes on my website,
www.beadsandbasil.com.
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Fire Roasted Tomato Soup
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Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic, and cook until fragrant, Put onion mixture into the bowl of a blender. Add broth, tomatoes, basil, balsamic vinegar and red pepper flakes. Blend until smooth, then pour mixture into a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and cover with lid. Simmer for 10 minutes, then add the cream and salt, to taste. Turn off heat and serve. Garnish with pine nuts and fresh basil. Note: If tomatoes are in season, you can slice them in half, drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Roast in 375 degree oven for 40-50 minutes, until blistered and soft. Remove skins, if desired. |
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Roasted Butternut Squash Soup Serves 4-6 |
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out seeds and stringy bits with a spoon. Cut apple in half, and remove stem and core. Cut off onion root and stem, and cut in half. On a foil-lined baking pan, place the butternut squash, apple, and onion halves. Drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes. Remove apple and onion from the pan and set aside. Continue roasting butternut squash for another 30 minutes, until tender. Allow to cool a few minutes. Using a spoon, scoop out the squash and put into the bowl of a blender. Add the roasted apple and onion, ginger, broth, and sage leaves. Blend until smooth. Pour mixture into a saucepan and bring to a boil, adding more broth if too thick. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Taste to see if more salt and pepper are needed, then serve in bowls. Garnish with toasted pipitas and a sprinkle of paprika, if desired. Note: You can add coconut milk in place of half the broth, if desired. |
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About Author Shannon Smith
I’m Chef Shannon Smith, creator of chefshannon.com, a website where I share my travel adventures, cooking experiences, jewelry creations, life stories, world travels, recipes, cooking classes, and jewelry art. In the past ten years, I’ve traveled to 52 countries, and I hope to add at least that many more over the next ten years. In every country, I am blessed to meet interesting people, learn new cultures, and try all kinds of delicious food. I take cooking classes, join food tours, meet with chefs, and often dine with people in their homes or restaurant kitchens. I’ve lived in Tulsa for over 30 years, and I love teaching people how to cook, especially dishes learned while traveling around the world. Some of my favorite cuisines are Indian, Moroccan, Turkish, Israeli, and Italian, although Indian is the cuisine that makes me the happiest. I’ve collected numerous recipes and methods for making delicious food, and I share those recipes on beadsandbasil.com. I teach classes several times a month when my travels allow. Those classes are advertised on the website but are almost always filled within hours after posting, so I also occasionally teach cooking classes to private groups. My readers and viewers get to learn about my cooking adventures, utensils and appliances. At last count, I have eight grills, two tagines, 22 knives, and ninety-four thousand serving dishes - at least according to my husband. My refrigerators are filled with nuts, cheese, and dried fruits I’ve brought from other countries. And my spice cabinets contain a menagerie of exotic and odiferous seeds, pods, and dried herbs that I use so many ways. Jewelry art is my other favorite activity. I create jewelry from beads and trinkets collected on my travels, including amber from Russia and Estonia, glass from Murano, Italy, paper beads from Rwanda, and old Yemen prayer capsules from Israel. I have an Indian friend who has some of the most beautiful semi-precious stones that he cuts into beautiful shapes. Several times a year, I attend national bead and jewelry shows where I search for unusual items to complete my creations. Many more adventures are planned for the future, and I’m excited to share them with you in my monthly column in Values Magazine, including recipes, cooking tips, interviews with my favorite Tulsa area chefs, cookbook recommendations, travel stories, my favorite local food trucks, and ways we can give our time and talents to our fantastic community of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Connect with me on Facebook and Instagram at Chef Shannon.
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