#15 Tomato Basil Bisque

Tomato Basil Bisque!

Dear Tiffany,
You know those premade soups they have at Safeway?  You know, in the little tupperware, or you can serve it yourself hot?  Someone brought a few of them to Phyllis's birthday dinner the other night, and the tomato basil bisque was amazing.  Everyone kept commenting on it, until there wasn't any left, and I went home determined to find out how to make it myself.  After scouring google, I found this recipe for a lightened up version.  The surprise ingredient?  Butternut squash.




Wait! Don't run away.  Or switch over to facebook and ignore this post.  Butternut squash is actually very simple to work with.  It doesn't have the super tough skin like other winter squashes, and it was easier than I expected to include in this soup.


What is a "bisque?"  (Or "beeeeesk" as someone called it the other night)  A bisque is simply a soup with milk or cream.  Not nearly so complicated as it sounds.  I mostly followed Carol's recipe, but I adapted it for my slow cooker, and went the less healthy route since I had cream from a previous adventure that I needed to use up.  I'll list both the high fat and low fat versions below.


The Basics: 
Prep time: About 30 minutes, plus several hours in the crock pot, OR a little over an hour (stove method)
Good for leftovers: yes.  If there is any left.
servings: 12 1-cup servings
cost: under $10


Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter or extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced (1.5 tsp)
2 (24.5-ounce) can whole tomatoes, with liquid
1 can (6 oz) roasted garlic tomato paste
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2-2 1/2 cups butternut squash, peeled and diced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1 to 1 1/4 cups cream OR nonfat half-and-half or nonfat yogurt OR milk
Several dashes of Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce

Several shakes of red pepper flakes

The Process (Slow-cooker version)

Saute butter or oil, onions, and garlic until the onions and garlic are golden.  Add the butter first and let it warm up while you chop the onions, then add the onions and garlic (if you add the garlic without the onions, its really easy to burn your garlic! yikes!  For some reason the garlic does better at not burning when its not lonely).  Make sure to stir once in awhile!

While the onions and garlic are cooking, prepare your butternut squash.  Cut off the ends, slice it down the middle (if its really long you may want to cut it in half short-ways before slicing down the middle).  Remove the peel with a vegetable peeler, and dice the squash as you would any other veggie.  Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, broth, basil, thyme, butternut squash, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to the crock pot, and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or on high for 4-6.

Puree the soup in a blender (or use an immersion blender).  Return soup to the crock pot, stir in cream or milk, and add Tabasco sauce to taste.  Cover and let it cook until soup is hot.  Serve with Parmesan or fresh basil or parsley as a garnish.

Stove-top Version

Same as above, but saute the garlic and onions in a large saucepan instead of a skillet, and just add the remaining ingredients to the saucepan once the onions are done.  Cover partly and cook for 30-35 minutes until the squash is fork-tender. Puree the soup, add cream or milk and hot sauce, and return to heat and bring just to a boil before serving.

Notes

In the Crock When I doubled this recipe, it filled my 6 quart crock pot.  Make sure your crock is big enough to fit the amount you want to make, before you start!

Freeze! If you made your own chicken broth and froze it, don't worry about thawing it before adding it to the slow cooker.  Just run the bag under warm water to loosen it up a bit, cut it open with scissors or a knife, and drop the entire ice cube in the crock.  It'll be ok, I promise.

To make it vegetarian: just use veggie broth instead of chicken broth.
Don't want to get a skillet dirty? Its probably ok to just dump your butter, onions, and garlic in the pot.  It won't taste quite as good (though still pretty yummy!), and you have to take the time to cut the squash anyways so to me it made more sense to get the skillet dirty.  But that's just me.

You might think this recipe has a lot of prep time, but think about how much you would spend for one of those little containers at Safeway.  You can make a whole bunch, and freeze or refrigerate the containers.

-joy