Halloween Soup with Salt and Pepper Pepita Rolls

The weather here in the Northeast has taken a cool turn but I really don't mind. When it turns cool, I can wear sweaters and boots and warm up with a piping hot bowl of soup. I often make soup in the summer but for some reason a bowl of soup never tastes as good as it does on a cool crisp fall day.

This Saturday is Halloween and I will be stirring up a pot of my favorite soup: butternut squash. Butternut Squash are plentiful right now in the supermarket and to make my life even easier many large supermarkets sell packaged peeled, already cut squash. Butternut squash soup is unbelievably simple and this particular recipe I think is the butternut squash soup for butternut squash soup haters. My H has long been a hater of butternut squash especially in soup form-he thinks of it as gritty and bitter. To convert him I had to use a bit of old fashioned chicanery.

Over the years I have learned that when it comes to getting your kids (and sometimes your significant other) to eat something that they think they don't like success can be achieved simply by changing the name to something perceived as more palatable. Just the other day I made pumpkin bread…sounds simple enough, but my daughter would not even think of tasting it because it was made from pumpkin. Visions of the mushy, stringy insides of freshly carved jack-o-lanterns have long prevented her from eating anything pumpkin related. Armed with this knowledge, when she came home from school and inquired as to the source of the fragrant “fall” smell that greeted her, I simply said “I’m baking cinnamon bread-would you like to try some?” She eagerly sampled and I quietly smiled. I fessed up and she acknowledged that she never would have tried it but now she loves pumpkin bread.

This brings me to my soup. Served in an elegant bowl with biscuits on the side I simply told the family it was “Halloween soup”. It smelled good. It looked smooth and not lumpy. It appeared safe. They dipped and ate until the bowls were clean-success.

On the side I served quick rolls coated with crushed pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds), salt and pepper.

For speed I used whole wheat refrigerator biscuits but you can make your biscuits from scratch if you would like and then press the cut biscuits into the pepitas, salt and pepper.

Please keep voting for my Island Style Banana Cream Pie at Pillsbury.com!! Thank you!!

Halloween Soup
(A.k.a. Butternut Squash Soup--even a butternut squash soup hater would love)

2 tablespoons butter
1 large sweet onion, peeled and diced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 medium carrot, diced
1 medium sized butternut squash, peeled and cut (or a 20 ounce package of precut squash)
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth (32 ounces)
1/2 cup heavy cream
Nutmeg

Melt the butter in a deep heavy skillet over medium heat. Stir in the onions and the brown sugar; cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onion is tender.

Stir in the salt, pepper, carrot and squash; cook, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Pour in the broth, bring just to a boil, reduce heat and continue cooking for an additional 10 minutes or until squash is tender. Transfer the squash, onion and carrots to a blender container along with 1/2 cup of the broth; pulse until smooth. Return the pureed squash to the skillet stirring to combine with the remaining broth.

Stir in 1/2 cup of heavy cream and cook for an additional 4-5 minutes. Season the soup to taste with additional salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls top with freshly grated nutmeg.

For best results be sure to use whole nutmeg freshly grated over the soup.

Salt and Pepper Pepita Biscuits

1 can 8-count whole grain refrigerator biscuits
1/4 cup pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Separate biscuits. In a small food processor pulse the pepitas with the salt and pepper. Spread the pepita mixture in an even layer on a sheet of parchment or waxed paper.

Press each side of the biscuits into the pepitas. Arrange biscuits on a baking sheet; bake 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.