Soup Time
Cutting a butternut squash requires a good knife, strength and focus. I didn’t think about writing this post until I took out my knife and began cutting. I knew that the tough, resistant exterior of a butternut squash, like a pumpkin or other hard shelled squash required something with more surface and heft than my trusty 8″ chef’s knife.
Or course having a sharp knife with a comfortable handle is key. This cleaver, a Shun Kaji, with it’s acid washed finish makes the work a breeze, although looking away for even a second can result in a really bad outcome. This is not a butter knife and I’ll tell you from experience — it cuts people, as well as tough squash with equality — clean cuts. Yes, but that scar is long gone, although it did teach me to pay attention and to follow recommended knife cleaning techniques — always. Especially with a mean looking, über sharp butcher’s knife.
I use Shun and Global knives in my kitchen and for this task I decided to use both. I was confident that the cleaver could accomplish the work of cutting right through the tough exterior with ease while the rather small Global vegetable knife with it’s hollow ground surface (the dimples) would speed up the process of cutting the vegetable into cubes. The hollow ground design is why I decided to write about making butternut squash soup and the knives I used. Having a hollow ground knife in your cache of kitchen tools is a must if you can make it happen.
The dimples are designed to reduce drag and even more importantly, to help food slip off the blade. Do you ever get frustrated when you’re chopping vegetables or fruit and pieces stick to the blade sometimes causing you to make too many cuts, or having to break your stride to flick off a stuck piece of produce? While not the perfect answer, the dimples create an air pocket and when you rock the knife to make the next cut, the fruit or vegetable often slips off the blade leaving room for the next cut. A hollow ground blade makes the job just a bit easier.
The soup was delicious. The addition of Bourbon Barrel Maple Syrup sure didn’t hurt, but I did make a mistake. Do you notice anything wrong with the cubes of squash you’re looking at? You’ll have to be a pretty observant sort, but it’s apparent in the photo above. I neglected to peel the squash before cutting it! I wasn’t following a recipe and hadn’t made butternut squash soup before so it wasn’t until I checked on the squash about mid-way that I realized my mistake. I’m not sure how I missed it, but the world didn’t come to an end.
I simply let the squash cool and scooped the meat from the skins using a spoon. Ta daa! It didn’t take long. The only negative I took away from this slip was that there was one surface on each piece of squash that didn’t get the benefit of caramelization. I used a potato masher and a stick blender to get a somewhat smooth consistency. If I’d wanted a silky texture, I could have used a potato ricer or food mill, but I was in the mood for a soup with something to chew on.
To garnish, I picked a few leaves of basil from my hydroponic garden and put them into the food processor with olive oil, garlic and bread crumbs making a simple pesto minus the parmesan with a little crunch. The final touch was a sprinkle of crispy bacon. The variables for this soup are endless — oranges, sausage, apples, potatoes, fennel, cheese, to name a few.
Have you made butternut squash soup? What did you put in yours?
* Yes, I work for Williams-Sonoma and yes, we sell the knives I’ve mentioned in this post, but no I did not receive the product from anyone and no, I was not asked to write this post and yes, I purchased the knives with my employee discount using my American Express Rewards Points. Gotta love Amex too — in this case, membership truly does have it’s privileges.
In 2007 my career with a large, but shrinking high tech Fortune 50 \"left me,\" leaving a void in my life. While lamenting the loss and flying around the world looking for a new career to get married to, I discovered a way to use a familiar outlet during tough times -- writing. My blog-writing morphed into writing about my favorite past time -- Food! I purchase food, sell food, make food, watch food being made, broadcast meal preparation, photograph and blog about food. Like I said; Food! To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box. 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Well I did see that you didn’t peel the squash in the Flickr pix! I was wondering about that… I have this huge peeler I bought at a discount when the Sur La Table store went out of business near me. It’s not easy peeling a butternut squash either…it gets quite slippery! I also don’t like getting out the seeds and icky fiberous stuff in the bottom of the squash. Those seeds don’t like being removed for some reason!
Great knife! I imagine it can easily work it’s way through a whole chicken too. Butternut squash–my favorite squash of them all. I hardly ever make soup though. Most often, I’ll put it in lasagna with a cream sauce.
Yeah, that fiber stuff is very stubborn, but there wasn’t much and there were hardly any seeds.
The lasagna sounds mighty fine. I’ve never strayed from the usual meat or eggplant lasagna.