Velvety Vegetable Soup with a Twist

Magic, upside-down soup. Everybody garnishes soup on top. Here’s the twist: This soup is garnished on the bottom, extending beyond the soup onto the rim. The fun part of the presentation is bringing the bowl to the table with only the garnish in place and artfully pouring in the soup to cover just the midsection. I dare you to try this without falling in love.

Velvety Vegetable Soup 

• 1 whole butternut squash, pierced several times with a knife
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut in chunks
• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut in chunks
• 3 spears of broccoli, cut in chunks
• 1-2 onions, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 T olive oil
• 1/4 c chopped fresh dill
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 6-8 c homemade soup stock, vegetable or chicken, or store bought 

Velvety Vegetable Soup Garnish

• 1/4 c pine nuts
• 1 broccoli cut into spears (minus the 3 spears above)
• 1/2 c crumbled goat cheese
• 1/2 coloured bell pepper, roasted (optional – for a colour boost)
• 1/2 T olive oil
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Microwave the whole squash on high, uncovered, for 8 minutes, turning once at halftime. When cooled, cut in half, scoop out the seeds, peel and chop.

Use a large soup pot to heat the olive oil, then add the onion and garlic, sautéing until golden. Add all the other soup ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes until softened. Blend until velvety.

Roast the broccoli for about 20 minutes, coated with a bit of olive oil, sea salt and black pepper, in a 400F oven until golden. Remove the broccoli stalks. Chop the broccoli tops, then combine garnish ingredients and divide them into portions.

Run a line of garnish left of center down each flat style soup bowl. Spoon or pour the hot soup over the garnish just before serving. Serves 6.

Velvety Vegetable Soup Print Ready Recipe

Final notes:

• The soup part of this recipe comes from a yummy soup my good friend friend, Mimi Kitner, introduced me to. It’s from Norene Gilletz‘s Healthy Kitchen cookbook.
• I stole the idea for the bottom garnish stripe from the Intercontinental Hotel‘s Squash Soup with Seafood Almond Salad presentation. So creative!

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