Sausage Butternut Squash Soup with White Beans, Kale & Bacon

So, I thought I had planted yellow long-neck squash, because that’s what the label said on the plants I bought at Ace Hardware. But I planted something VERY different, as I found out later in the summer. I had grown the plants on an arched trellis, which worked out very nicely, but discovered what I had actually planted was butternut squash. No regrets, though, as I found out this meaty version of squash has an excellent flavor and makes a great soup or side dish. Hooray for garden surprises!

This soup is very flavorful and has an interesting blend of comforting flavors.

Sausage Butternut Squash Soup with White Beans, Kale & Bacon

A savory soup with an interesting blend of comforting flavors.

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Course: Soups

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• ½ lb mild or hot Italian bulk sausage
• 3-5 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled (reserve bacon grease) or you can buy crumbled bacon and use bacon grease that you saved from a previous batch of bacon, which I did
• 1 med to lrg butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed cut into ½-¾" pieces
• 1 tbsp butter or vegetable oil (olive or avocado)
• ½ large white or yellow onion, chopped
• 1 14oz can white beans, drained
• 3-4 ears cooked corn, sliced from the cob or one 14oz can of whole kernel corn
• 3-4 cloves fresh garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tbsp fresh rosemary or 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 6 cups chicken stock/broth or 6 cups water + 3 T chicken bouillon
• ½ lemon, juiced about equal to 3 tbsp bottled lemon juice
• 1 bunch kale, stemmed and chopped can substitute fresh spinach

Method

 

1. In a dutch oven or ample soup pot, cook the sausage until no longer pink. Remove from pot and set aside. Rinse pot to remove sausage grease.
2. Cook the bacon and remove from the pan, leaving the drippings. (Or add approximately 3 tbsp bacon grease to the heated pot.)
3. While the sausage and bacon are cooking, prepare your ingredients. Drain and rinse the canned beans (and drain the corn if using canned). Chop the onion, mince the garlic, slice the corn off the cob, and peel, seed, and cut the squash into ½-¾" cubes.
4. Cook the squash in the heated bacon grease until lightly roasted/browned and the meat of the squash is somewhat tender (don't overcook or your squash will be mushy). Salt and pepper to taste. Remove squash from pot and set aside.
5. Heat the vegetable oil in the pot that has the remaining bacon grease. Add the onions and garlic and saute until the onions are starting to turn translucent. Salt and pepper to taste. Add the chopped/dried herbs and cook another minute or so.
6. Add the broth to the pot, together with the squash, sausage, bacon, and lemon juice. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 15 minutes.
7. Add corn, beans, and chopped kale. Simmer for about 5 more minutes or until the kale is tender. Add additional salt or pepper to taste, if needed. Serve with Parmesan sprinkled on top and a crusty, heated baguette.

Notes

Unlike me, most people don't like soup in the summertime. But you can freeze the vegetable ingredients for this soup in a kit during the summer for cooking in the fall or winter. I would not freeze the squash raw, but roast it in the oven, spread it on a cookie sheet, and then freeze it for bagging. The corn would need to be blanched, just as if you were freezing corn in general.

This recipe was adapted from: https://thebutteredhome.com/butternut-squash-soup-with-bacon-spinach-and-white-beans/