With everyone around Santa Rita Hills Lavender Farm getting things ready for Valentine’s Day, sometimes the chilly winter can get to you while you’re working in the field; so we thought it would be a good time to show off our twist on Tahitian Melon Squash soup!
First, lets list out the ingredients, you’ll need:
1 pound Roasted Squash (we used the Tahitian melon squash we grew, but any winter squash will do!)
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium yellow onion, chopped and sauted
1 clove of garlic
1 medium leek, white part only, chopped
6 cups chicken/vegetable broth (for vegetarians!)
1 teaspoon Lavender Seasoning Salt
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (leave out if you have a sensitivity!)
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 bay leaf
1 cup half and half (optional)
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme (or a couple fresh sprigs!)
First we roast the squash in the oven at 350 degrees, after we liberally apllied our Lavender Seasoning Salt to both sides of the cut open squash. Proceed to bake in the oven on a baking sheet tented with aluminum foil.
As the squash bakes in the oven, we move on to the broth itself. While most recipes would tell you to use a bunch of different pots and pans, we feel that is a super hassle for the home cook, so we do all of our prep work in the same soup pot! So in the soup pot we first melt the butter, add in the chopped onions and saute for a minute. We then add in the garlic and let it all saute together in the pot.
Once you have finished sauteing the onions and garlic, remove the baked squash from the oven and seperate the now mealy squash meat from the skin using a spoon. Transfer the baked squash meat to the saute pot and add chicken/vegetable stock.
Finally add in all of the seasonings you have left and leave the pot to simmer covered for at least a half hour. After a half an hour, remove the bay leaf and use the immersion blender to incorporate the half and half into the soup. Serve and Enjoy!
We don't leave any of this to waste however, so the skins go off to the happiest chickens in Santa Barbara County, while the rest of the squash goes out to behind the farmstnad for thus years squash patch!
