Greenling Quickfire Round Six

I have been looking forward to tonight's Greenling box and Surprise Me Quickfire challenge all day and once again the Surprise me item was a fantastic one. Acorn Squash! And a huge one at that! 


With the cold snap passing through tonight's dish was a crazy easy decision, I decided to make a roasted acorn squash soup.


Roasting an acorn squash is super easy. Slice in half, scrape out the seeds and place open side down in a baking dish and roast at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Once the meat has softened it's easy to scrape out with a spoon. 

To start the soup I diced a sweet onion and added to my stock pot with 2 tablespoons of salted butter.


I let the onion caramelize, then I peeled and chopped up 2 small granny smith apples and added them to the onion with a tiny bit more butter. I let those cook down and then added the scooped out roasted squash.


Once I had all the main ingredients in the pot, I added a small box (apx 4 cups) of organic vegetable broth and used my hand immersion blender to puree the mixture to a beautiful creamy soup texture. The immersion blender is one of my favorite winter appliances. It makes soup making so easy! I picked it up for under 20 bucks and it's a great tool.

My other inspiration for tonight's dish was this amazing Roasted Saigon Cinnamon i picked up at the grocery store. I first saw an ad for it in this month's Southern Living magazine. They had a recipe for a chocolate ancho cinnamon crackle cookie I plan to use for my cookie exchange this year. But I really didn't want to wait to use this fun new spice.


I love this new spicy cinnamon and can't wait to try the cookies. For the soup it added a great flavor and kick without adding any heat.


I can't wait to find more uses for it in my kitchen

Once the soup was spiced (I also added a dash of allspice, sea salt, and fresh cracked white and black peppercorns) I let it simmer for about 20 minutes. 


The smell in my kitchen was fantastic and the soup was even better once we got to eat it.


I will be making this dish again and again and again.


I'm also thinking of taking my immersion blender with me on vacation to prepare this dish for my vegan friends!


Here's a shot of the finished soup. My daughter ate 2 bowls full and I finished of a bowl and a half by myself. 


Thanks Greenling for another fantastic dinner inspiration and fun evening in my kitchen. 


While the soup was cooking I also knocked out a double batch of Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies for a work party tomorrow.  Kitchen success tonight all around.


I'm still giddy over Paul's win last week on Top Chef and hoping he grabs another tonight!