Saturday, October 21, 2017

Roasted Acorn Squash and Pear Soup


Fall has officially begun, so I say bring on all the wonderful fall produce!! 

You will love this flavorful soup made with roasted acorn squash and sweet yellow Bartlett pears. 




Winter squashes like acorn squash make wonderful fall soup that can be delicious warm or just as good chilled.


With the fall weather vacillating between chilly nights and warm sunny days, this is the perfect soup . On an unseasonably warm day, eat this chilled soup chilled topped with chopped dates, cinnamon, gorgonzola cheese, pecans, and chopped pear.


I made this soup in three simple steps!

1. Roast the squash in the oven-

2. Blend in the blender

 3.  Eat or Chill 

Wash, cut , and core acorn squash 


Turn squash face down on parchment covered cookie sheet.. Place seeds alongside to roast.
I think that acorn squash seeds taste better than pumpkin seeds!

Once the squash is roasted, the soup itself can be made in minutes.

Acorn squash can be very sweet , especially when roasted in the oven. 
The seasonal yellow pears add an additional lovely flavor. 
But it is the toppings that bring it home for me!

The seeds need to be removed from the cookie sheet as soon as they turn brown. You can use a separate cookie sheet if you prefer. They are delicious and worth saving!!

The soup itself is vegan and of course totally gluten free- your toppings can be vegan or you can add blue cheese like I did!

Pears and blue cheese or gorgonzola chunks are a marriage made in heaven!

In the past there was some concern to as whether blue cheese was gluten free. It turns out it is!!

If you would like to know more read :  Is it safe to eat Blue Cheese on a gluten free diet?


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Prep Time: 10 minutes 
Baking Time: 40 minutes 
Blend Time: 5 minutes


Ingredients: 

1 acorn squash- washed,  cut in half and seeded
Save and wash the seeds and then toss in some olive oil and salt
2 yellow pears, peeled, cored, and quartered + a third pear to chop for garnish
4 cups of vegetable broth
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Directions: 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
On a parchment lined rimmed cookie sheet, place the acorn squash halves face down. Pierce the halves with a fork to allow steam to escape. On the same cookie sheet place the seeds from inside the squash. Place in oven for around 40 minutes or until squash is tender ( time will vary depending on the size of your acorn squash.) 
When the squash is tender, remove from the oven,  turn the squash face side up and scoop out the flesh. When cool, place in a strong blender along with the pears, vegetable broth, cinnamon and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth and then divide among individual serving bowls. 
Eat at room temperature or warm or chill and serve cold . 

You can go crazy with the toppings

Chopped pears, cinnamon, gorgonzola cheese, blue cheese, candied pecans, pecans, chopped dates- make it your way!!







Shared on Souper Sunday where anyone can share a soup, salad, or samie 


10 comments:

  1. A perfectly warming and delicious Fall soup. I really love the combination of squash and pear here. Excellent!

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  2. Thank you Angie- It was the first time I made something like this.. I'm just beginning to warm up to acorn squash

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  3. Oooh! Interesting. Sounds super yummy, and those garnishes probably take it over the top. Pears go so well with blue cheese that this is surely a natural.

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    1. my favorite topping is the chopped dates, blue cheese chunks, and chopped candied pecans

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  4. The soup alone looks delicious but your toppings take it over the top. They are always my favorite part of soup. ;-) Thanks for sharing with Souper Sundays this week.

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    1. In this case I agree.. the toppings! oh the toppings- blue cheese, candied pecans and chopped dates.. yum

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  5. You are singing my song with this post, my kind of soup and roasted seeds too.

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    1. Carol,
      So Glad. I prefer savory , but once in a while I try a sweeter type of soup like this one

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  6. my grandmother had a pear tree in her old farm yard. I could see her making this recipe and believe I will give it a try myself

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  7. Hi Judee, I'm a bit on the fence on this soup, purely because I'm not over keen on the taste of pears. Being a lover of soup my curiosity is piqued, so I may just have to give this a try. I imagine the blue cheese would add a nice tang... Pinning for future reference.

    Thank you for linking up with the #MMBC.

    xx

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Your comments are appreciated. I love knowing who is stopping by to read my posts! Have a great day.

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