Butternut Squash in Summer

Butternut squash, one of the most delicious of the winter squashes, is available much of the year. With some determination, it can be peeled with a vegetable peeler, then cut into chunks to cook and puree. The seeds can be roasted as you would pumpkin seeds.

Last week we were to take lunch to our 100-going-on-101 year old, dear friend, Kay Bradway. She’s an amazing person, a Jungian analyst who brought the practice of sand play therapy to American psychiatry after a trip to Europe in 1932. If you can imagine, that was when Hitler was mounting his forces, intent on taking over the universe. It was also a time when bon vivance imbued the streets and cafes in Europe.  We know Kay because she was a lifelong friend of Rick’s beloved late Aunt Joy. Since high school together in Minnesota, Kay and Joy kept up a strong bond, even from opposite sides of the continent (Joy in Boston, Kay in Sausalito, California) when they were adults. Rick and I regularly get together with Kay over lunch in her Sausalito home. This recent August week, we were bringing the lunch and she was in the mood for some soup, but she’s not keen on spicy foods these days. So I made a simple pureed butternut squash soup and garnished it with fennel fronds from the yard for color and added aroma.

As I was making the soup, I thought about Kay and her contribution to psychoanalysis, and how doing as I was doing was in fact the therapy. As she explains, sand play therapy is based on a sand box which is basically a three dimensional, open “canvas” within which to draw in the sand and arrange figurines, chosen from the therapist’s collection, according to whim. It is that doing that is the calming, the healing, not anything the person has to say about what she/he is doing and not anything the therapist either has to say. It’s in the quiet, concentrated doing.  She loved the soup!

Makes 6 cups

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped

2 teaspoons peeled and chopped fresh ginger

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 to 2 1/2-pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks

2 cups light chicken broth, preferably homemade

2 cups filtered water

1 tablespoon chopped fresh fennel fronds or fresh dill, for garnish

1 lime, cut into wedges, for garnish

1. Melt the butter large saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir in the onions and cook slowly until well-wilted, about 10 minutes.

2. Stir in the ginger, sage, and salt. Add the squash, broth, and water, increase the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat to maintain a brisk simmer and cook until the squash is soft enough to mash, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely.

3. Puree the soup in a food processor or blender (the blender will give a more silken texture).

4. To serve, reheat the soup on the stove top or in the microwave. Ladle into individual bowls, sprinkle the chopped fennel fronds over the top,  and garnish with a lime wedge.

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