Roasted Squash Chipotle Lentil Soup

The inspiration for this soup comes from one of the students at work who just happened to get engaged (I had to quell my excitement because said student doesn't know me that well and also doesn't know how much I love, love, love weddings and would very much like to plan his). On Friday, over lunch, him and I had a rousing conversation (well, to us) about just how easy it is to make stock and how gross it is to make stock from chicken feet. The people surrounding us at the table were not nearly as enthralled with our conversation. Possibly least enthralled was our vegetarian boss. Anyway, we got to talking more in depth about soup and he said something about throwing a chipotle pepper in regular old lentil soup and I thought that was brilliant.

Here goes a very spicy Roasted Squash Chipotle Lentil Soup. you'll need: 1 butternut squash, 1 yellow onion, 4 cloves of garlic, 3 parsnips, 2 chipotles in adobo, some hot smoked paprika, salt and pepper to taste, a cup or so of lentils, and a 1/4 cup of peppadews.  Where's the broth you may be wondering. I just used plain old water.

First, preheat the oven to 350. Second, make smarter decisions than I did.  In my defense, I was making this at 7:15 on a Sunday morning, because I was wide awake and instead of acting like a normal person and enjoying some coffee and a newspaper, I made soup (and a spinach lasagne). Yeah I'm nuts.  However, Brian woke up to the smell of roasting veggies, so that's pretty awesome. I guess there's a perk to having an insane wife.

Start with the onions, slicing them into rounds, and peel and coarsely chop the parsnips.  Arrange these on the bottom of your roasting dish, coat with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with paprika, salt and pepper.  Next the butternut squash.  You really want to peel this before roasting it as it will make your life easier later (trust me, I failed to do this). Then halve the squash, remove the seeds, and place it on top of the onion, cut side up.  Lastly, peel the garlic, but leave the cloves whole. Place these in the round part of the squash. Coat the squash with a bit of olive oil and again sprinkle with paprika, salt and pepper.  Roast for about 50-60 minutes or until the squash is done.

While the veggies are roasting, mince the peppadews.  What's a peppadew? First and foremost, peppadews are delicious. They are delicious stuffed with goat cheese, and in hummus and just out of the jar. I ♥ them. I literally shrieked and did a little dance in Trader Joe's when I found them there. I have one jar in my fridge and another in the pantry right now, in case of peppadew emergency.  But I digress, peppadews are a sweet and spicy pickled peppers. They are also a topping in this soup. If you can't find them, you're really missing out. Go find them. Go harass your local grocer until they are stocked. You will not be sorry.

Once the veggies are done, puree them, however you'd like. I opted for the food processor as it is the most efficient. Here's also when I realized I should have peeled the squash first. Cutting hot squash from its skin was not fun. I also added about one cup of water to assist in the pureeing process.

Once the veggies look smooth and liquid, add the 2 chipotle peppers.  You may opt to add fewer peppers unless you like really hot soup. I think that eating excessively spicy food is a good way to ensure portion control, so I went a bit overboard with the spicy.

Next, transfer the squash puree to a stock pot.  Add about 5 cups of water and bring to a boil.

Once a decent boil erupts (gross, right?), add the lentils.  I fully intended to add more than a cup of lentils, but that was all I had in my pantry. It's taken me over a year, but I finally cooked an entire giant Your Dekalb Farmer's Market container of lentils. I think this is a victory.  Cook for about 20 minutes until the lentils are done.

Because I write this blog either 1) at the end working/dog walking/gym-ing/choreing on a weekday or 2) while drinking on a Sunday, I often do dumb things. Today's dumb thing was deleting the pretty picture of the finished soup. It was so cute, with a spoon full of minced peppadews topping it. Just picture it. It was cute. Most importantly, the soup was delicious. I hope you an enjoy, even without a final picture.