Today was the first really fall-like day we’ve had in Sacramento, which I was pretty excited about. So it’s time for my first really fall-like soup recipe! Hoorah!
serves 2 (very generously – you can easily make 4 side cups of soup out of this)
1 small butternut squash (about 4 C cubes)
1 bulb fennel
2 T olive oil, divided
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 t ground sage
1/2 t celery salt
1 Field Roast apple sage sausage, diced
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Peel, seed, and cube your butternut squash. It doesn’t really matter if it is bigger or smaller than 4 C of cubes – it will be good anyway. I set aside a few cubes for a yummy salad recipe I’m making soon!
Cut the fennel into cubes the same size as your butternut squash. Coat fennel and squash cubes in 1 T of the olive oil, put on a foil lined baking sheet, and roast for about 35-40 minutes, until fork tender.
When the squash is almost done, heat a large saucepan over medium heat, add 2 t of the olive oil, and add the onion, sage, and celery salt. Cook for about 5 minutes until the onion is soft. Then add in the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the squash, fennel, and water, and bring to a light boil. Then puree the soup!
While you’re waiting for the soup to boil, heat the last teaspoon of oil in a small skillet and add the diced sausage until crispy. Serve your soup with crispy sausage and maybe some fennel frond garnish on top!
Another VCC Highlight now! If you haven’t been reading for long, VCC is the Sacramento Vegan Chef Challenge, and it’s awesome! Only 10 days left, so get out there and get some awesome vegan food while it’s still around!
I didn’t get a chance to go to El Papagayo yet. I have been there for their Vegan Wednesdays – delicious vegan taco options and highly addictive refried beans that make you want to eat nothing else for the rest of your life. Yum. (Seriously, I’m not kidding about the refried beans. It seems ridiculous to rave about refried beans, but I want vats full of them.) But my parents went the other day for the VCC meal and apparently drooled over the dessert so much and mentioned their vegan-blog-writing daughter to the waitress, so a complimentary piece of chocolate pie with mango sauce found its way to my door! Yay!
Got a shocking statement here I’ve been hiding from y’all: I am not really a big fan of chocolate. I like a little sprinkle of chocolate chips here and there, and I like things that have some chocolate element to them. But a chocolate pie is so not my kind of thing. This one changes everything. I totally get the drooling. I have no idea what this is made of but it is rich and creamy, but devouring the whole thing left me feeling light and happy 🙂
Quick caveat to my statement above – here’s a new discovery of something chocolate that I really love:
Wow.
Parting picture! Went to Hot Italian tonight with Team Veg, my vegan running group! We got our T-shirts for the CIM today (no, I’m not doing the full marathon. I’m doing a relay. We’ll get there someday . . . ) Like ’em!?! It was lots of fun, and Hot Italian is a very vegan-friendly restaurant with a wonderful veggie vegan pizza – and they even have Daiya cheese! Exciting. 🙂
I know, I know. Long post. Many topics. Remember that soup I started with way back at the beginning? Here’s the nutritional info:
Nutrition facts per serving: Calories: 418; Calories from Fat: 176; Total Fat: 19.6g; Saturated Fat: 2.6g; Sodium: 376mg; Total Carbohydrates: 50.5g; Dietary Fiber: 11.4g; Sugars: 8.9g; Protein: 17.8g
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