Sometimes I Make Toddler Approved Food!/I WANT SOUP!

I literally have the best "job" in the world.  I get to hang out with my niece (she turns two in less than two weeks!) all day long.  We go to the park, the craft store, the Children's Museum of Manhattan, the train, Starbucks (known to the little one as "BUDDAFALAIE COOKIE!"/that's "butterfly cookie" for those of you not fluent in toddler-ese), story time (Bank Street Bookstore has daily story time and then even have once a week with a fantastic singing story time - check out some of their songs here!), and we cannot wait for it to be a little warmer for more outside time!  The little one also enjoys making up her own songs, singing the ABC Song, identifying colors, shapes, and letters, having epic dance parties, and generally having an awesome time!

My little buddy, Lisa, really loves natural foods.  We share an orange every day (alright, so she kind of hogs it - "MORE PEEZ"- but you get the idea) and she loves carrots, broccoli, cantaloupe, apples, and....you get the idea.  She also loves soup.  I think she might be a soup-a-tarian.  She is incredibly sweet and calm 99% of the time, but one of the demands she sometimes has is her, "I WANT SOUP!" chant.  It is too cute and at least she is asking for something nutritious, so this is an easy toddler demand to fill.  I made an Italian Spinach Orzo Soup for her once and she really enjoyed it (I plan on making that a blog post soon!), so when I decided to make one of our favorites, I brought it to share with the adorable kiddo the next day.

The recipe is probably the simplest soup recipe ever with only six ingredients plus salt!  It is a butternut squash recipe and I know it is toward the very end of the squash season, but we love it so much I had to make it one last time before we can no longer find squash at our beloved Trader Joe's!  We used pre-cut butternut squash because that is all that is left in the stores, but I do love making it in the fall and throughout the winter with whole squash and roasting the seeds covered in a bit of salt in the oven for a great snack.  You also need some onion, green apples (I love using Granny Smith because they add a tiny tart punch to the flavor), chicken broth, rosemary, and bread.  When I lived in Virginia I used to go for the twofer of a delicious rosemary bread for even more of a flavor punch, but I have not found a great substitute for my Kroger bread (I have not really looked hard because I am positive I could find some in the city).  One time I even made this with gluten free bread for my gluten intolerant friend and it still tasted delicious!

When you combine all these ingredients in the pot it kind of looks like a really weird combination....

Everything in the pot!

Not to worry, though, because you bring it to a boil, aggressively season it, and either use a spoon to smash the chunks of apple and squash against the side to incorporate it into the soup or you could use the blender.  We like our soup with a bit more body, so we just manually smash it.

Eventually, your soup will look like this:

Voila!  It cooks down to look like this!

We normally make a sandwich on the side of our soup (or delicious crostini), so we utilize our old friend Jorgé/George Foreman.  Our panini sandwiches are made using any delicious bread (I used a multigrain Anadama bread from Trader Joe's - the origin story at the bottom of the Wiki entry is pretty funny!), some deli meat, and deli-sliced cheese.  If you drizzle a little olive oil on both sides of the bread before placing the sandwich into Jorgé or a fancy-schmancy panini press if you have space for single-function kitchen tools, cook until the cheese is melted, cut in half, then you can have a tasty looking meal like ours!  You could totally make your panini sandwiches with veggies or whatever else you like, we just tend to have a little protein on the side of our hearty vegetable soups!

The finished product complete with grilled panini!

Back to the toddler approval part.  I brought it the next day to share with Lisa unsure whether or not she would be into this particular soup (she does love the color orange, so it had that going for it!).  I got the best approval ever - she started stealing from my bowl when she finished hers!

"I like it!"

Here is the recipe (happy hunting for butternut squash!):

Butternut Squash Soup

(Serves somewhere in the ballpark of a small army/10 - 12)

Ingredients:

- 2 - 20 oz packages of pre-cut butternut squash or 3 pounds of butternut squashes, peeled and seeded

- 2 onions, chopped (I chopped my own onions this time!)

- 4 or 5 slices of bread (I have used rosemary bread, white bread, whole wheat bread, even multigrain or gluten free bread - it all works)

- 4 green apples (I prefer Granny Smith), peeled and roughly chopped

- 2 - 32 oz boxes of chicken broth (I use low sodium because I like to control the salt myself)

- 2-3 tbsp Rosemary (we used dried, but fresh would be great, too), crumbled in your hand or chopped

- salt

Directions:

1.  Chop the onion and start cooking it down in a large pot over medium-low heat while you prepare other ingredients.

2.  Drop the squash, apples, and broth into the pot and raise the heat to high.

3.  Tear the bread into small pieces and drop that into the pot.  

4.  Season the mixture with salt and some of the rosemary (I like to add it several times over the course of the cooking time).  Bring to a boil and turn the temperature down slightly.  

5.  Allow the soup to continue at a low boil and stir every few minutes.  Continue adding seasoning every few times you stir. 

6.  As the ingredients soften, begin smashing them against the side of the pot with a sturdy spoon or against the bottom with potato masher.  Do this gently as the soup is very hot and can hurt if you get splashed!

7.  If you prefer velvety soup, ladle some into the blender, blend it, return it to the pot, and repeat until you blend it all.  

8.  Serve on the side of sandwiches or salad.

9.  Enjoy!