If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen a post in which I lamented that my beloved hand blender broke.
“I’m sad,” I told Matt that day. “My hand blender broke.”
“What broke?” he asked.
“The blender.”
“No,” he said. “What part of it broke?”
“Um, the whole thing” I stared at him blankly. “It doesn’t blend any more.”
Matt got up from the couch and took the hand blender from me. He separated the handle section from the blade part. One second later he said, “Oh, you’ve stripped the (something something.)” He didn’t actually say “something something.” He had some specific name for the inside of the plastic handle that apparently stripped out and caused the non-blending situation.
“That’s amazing,” I marveled. “How did you figure that out so fast?”
“It’s the basic premise of every rotating tool. The gears turn the …” and he continued with an explanation that I understood at the time but couldn’t repeat now. “My dad taught me that when I was six.”
Wow, I thought. I think they teach different things to little boys than they do to little girls.
Anyhow, my hand blender doesn’t work. In my Facebook post, I mentioned that I thought that instead of buying another hand blender, perhaps I would spring for a Vitamix, the mega, extreme blender that blends splendidly, purees perfectly and saves lives of young orphans – or at least I think that was one of the thousands of features that Vitamix loyalists rave about.
Despite the machine’s reported awesomeness, I haven’t plunked down the $375 to buy one yet. I’m frugal like that sometimes. But last weekend, my friend L.B. was nice enough to bring over her Vitamix so we could make a recipe she repeatedly last winter.
It’s a amazingly simple soup – basically, pureed butternut squash. But it’s delicious and nutrient rich. In this recipe, We spiced the soup with garam masala, but you would easily remove that spice and add any number of other flavors: sage, cinnamon, bacon or whatever you might like to try.
As we were slurping it down after our workout, I almost decided to go ahead and get that Vitamix.
Blended Butternut Squash Soup
Butternut squash, 1, medium
Water, varies (You will need enough to cover and additional for blending.)
Olive oil, ¼ cup
Garam masala, 1 teaspoon
Salt and pepper
- Peel butternut squash and cut into cubes, about 1 cm square or so. Place squash in a large pot and add enough water to cover the squash.
- Place pot on stove and bring water to a boil. Then reduce heat so water is simmering. Let squash simmer for about 20-30 minutes, until squash is soft and can be easily poked with a fork. Check occasionally to make sure the water hasn’t all evaporated, adding more if needed.
- When squash is done, remove from heat. Let it cool slightly (just because blending hot soups is sort of dangerous and splattery.)
- Add squash and all the water in the pot to a blender, then add olive oil, garam masala, salt and pepper. You may need to add more water depending on how much water was left from cooking and how thick you like your soup. (We added an additional 2 cups, but this part you will really have to figure out as you go.)
- Blend soup until smooth and creamy.
- Pour into bowls, grab a spoon and dig in!