Azteca Squash Soup

I was paging through an old Bon App that was sitting around and a recipe caught my eye.

As I read I thought, I had bell peppers, limes, tomatoes, and jalapeno peppers from the backyard. I had a butternut squash sitting in the pantry. I had cilantro from the box in the fridge. I had some avocado that needed to be used. I had leftover non-fat sour cream in the fridge. It was a perfect storm of ingredients for this recipe. The recipe was from the Rancho La Puerta resort in Mexico. I have two of their cookbooks and I could not locate this recipe in either cookbook. We decided that this adaptation was a keeper. Start early because it takes awhile to do the first few steps but later things can slow down and wait.

Azteca Squash Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash, halved and seeded
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium-sized onion, diced
• 1 cup celery, chopped (about 1 stalk)
• 2-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 cups of broth
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 cup canned black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 1-2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and sliced
• juice of half a lime
  
• cilantro leaves, chopped tomato, diced avocado, non-fat sour cream for garnish

Procedures:

• Early in the day or the day before:
  
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees
• Cut the butternut squash in half and clean out
  
• Spray nonstick spray on a baking dish
• Sprinkle cut squash with salt and pepper and lay cut side down into the baking dish
• Roast until tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours
• When cooked, remove squash from oven and turn squash cut side up to cool
• When cool, scoop squash into a medium bowl

• Closer to serving time:
  
• Heat oil in a large pot and add onion, cook until onion is pale golden (5-10 minutes)
  
• Mix in celery, garlic, and 1 cup of broth
• Cover and simmer for 10 minutes stirring occasionally, add salt and pepper to taste
  
• Add butternut squash, 5 cups of broth, and cumin
• Cover and let simmer for 20 minutes to blend flavors

• Prior to serving:
  
• Use an immersion blender to puree the mix until smooth
• Squeeze in lime juice
  
• Add black beans, corn kernels, bell peppers, and jalapeno peppers (I also added in sliced and sauteed veggie sausages)
  
• Cover and simmer for 10 minutes
• Serve into bowls and garnish with your choice of non-fat sour cream (or plain yogurt), diced tomatoes, diced avocados, cilantro leaves