A fun way to entertain or serve a crowd this winter: butternut squash soup shooters!
The school where JR takes his music lessons — a place that is like a second home to him — recently hosted its annual fundraiser to raise money for its scholarship fund and for the regional housing center. The event featured live music, beer pours from local home brewers and bites from area chefs.
Guess who got asked to be one of the participating chefs?
This definitely falls into the category of no good deed goes unpunished. As a food writer and recipe developer, I often make food for work projects that than my family cannot, or will not, eat. Naturally, I hate to waste food, so I am always looking to unload the extra food. Lately, I have taken to bringing the results of my kitchen experiments to JR’s music school for the dedicated, talented, and hungry staff to eat. It’s a win-win. They are excessively grateful and I am thrilled that no food is wasted.
So, the owner of the school is well aware that I make food for a living. (Although I always clarify when the opportunity arises that I am not a chef. Chefs are people who go to culinary school and/or work in restaurants.) And when she asked me to be one of the chefs — again, I’m not a chef — for the annual fundraiser, I could hardly say no. And truth be told, I was honored to be included.
But it did mean coming up with 200 servings of a small (2-3 bites) dish — not the kind of thing that I usually do in my work. Again, I am not a chef, or a caterer, or someone who regularly makes food for 200 people. So I it took me a long time to figure out what to make. I did not want to have to make and plate 200 individual portions of something like they do on “Top Chef.” Rather, I wanted to be able to make one enormous batch of a dish that I could then portion out as needed.
The answer to my quandary? Soup. Or soup shooters to be more precise. One enormous batch of soup that could then be ladled out as needed into perfectly portioned shot glasses. As guests would stop by my table, I would hand them a soup shooter and then, down the hatch! No spoons needed and no fussing around with trying to make 200 sliders or tacos or meatballs.
The soup recipe I decided to make comes from my first book Food Swap. It’s a butternut squash and apple soup redolent with warm spices like cinnamon and cloves and a hint of sweetness from apple cider. It’s both elegant and soothing at the same time. I decided to use vegetable broth so the soup would be vegetarian, but I couldn’t resist adding some cream. So vegetarian but not vegan.
The key to soup shooters is drinkability, so puree your soup well and use more liquid than you might if you were planning to serve the soup in bowls with, you know, spoons. But doing away with those pesky spoons makes it a breeze to serve soup to large groups or at a cocktail party where the bites are intended to be finger food. The small size — just two ounces — also makes soup shooters a perfect amuse-bouche to begin an elegant dinner party. Plus, for some reason people love drinking soup. Go figure.
I made 200 of these soup shooters, but you probably don’t want to. This recipe makes sixteen 2-ounce shooters. But you can easily halve, or double, the recipe as needed.
Ingredients
- 1 butternut squash, peeled, seeds removed and cut into cubes
- 4 TB extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 2 small green apples, peeled, quartered, and chopped
- 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/8 teaspoon each ground cloves, ground allspice, and ground nutmeg
- Pinch of red pepper flakes
- 2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
- 1/2 cup apple cider
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Thyme or chives for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425.
- Toss the squash with the olive oil and salt and pepper and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast the squash for 20 minutes or until soft.
- Meanwhile, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add the apples, ginger, and garlic, and stir to combine. Sauté until tender but not browned, lowering the heat as necessary, about 10 minutes. Add the cloves, allspice, and nutmeg, and continue to sauté a few more minutes until fragrant.
- Add the roasted squash and the broth and cider and stir to combine.
- Bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer until the vegetables are very soft, about 10 minutes.
- Puree the soup until very smooth in a food processor or high-speed blender, working in batches as necessary. Add the cream and stir to combine. (Can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator until ready to be reheated.)
- To serve, pour the soup into 2 ounce shot glasses (disposable is fine). Garnish with a sprig of thyme or chopped chives.
So cute!
Thank you! Who doesn’t love individual serving sizes?