Sweet Squash Soup

Number one thing I swore I would NEVER eat: tofu.  Yuck!!!!!!!!  Is it even a food? It’s like if rubber and jello had a child, right?

So, of course, I absolutely had to use it in a recipe once I went plant based.

Now, before you prepare to scream, “Run for your lives! It’s a tofu recipe!!”, let me assure you that I have fed this soup to my non-tofu, meat and dairy eating family and they had absolutely no idea it incorporated tofu and not some kind of cream.  Really.  I swear.  Cross my heart.

And it might have helped that it was the only thing I made, besides a salad. 😉

So if you are adventurous (and hungry) and want an easy meal, read on…

And if not, I promise the next recipe won’t have tofu.  Really.  I swear.  Cross my heart.

• 1 small butternut squash
• 2 small acorn  squash
• 2 delicata squash
• 2 leeks
• 3 heads of garlic
• 1 sweet potato
• olive oil
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 package silken tofu, drained
• 2 – 2 1/2 cups almond milk (I like my soup really thick, so I stick with the lower end of the amount given. It also depends also on how large the squash is.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400.
2. Prepare the veggies:  Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds.  Clean the leeks (Cut in half lengthwise and clean each half under running water.  Use only the white and light green parts.) Scrub the potato and stick it with a fork several times.  Cut the tops off of the heads of garlic.
3. Place each head of garlic on a small square of tin foil, drizzle with a little olive oil, then fold the foil up around the garlic.  Either wrap the potato in foil as well or place on a small pan lined with foil.
4. In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon, salt, pepper and about 3-5 tablespoons of olive oil (the bigger the squash, the more oil you will need. Brush the inside of the squash and leeks with this mixture and place them face down on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, foil or a silicone sheet.
5. Put the veggies, potato and garlic in the oven and roast till tender.  Start checking doneness of each ingredient after half an hour, and remove each one from the oven  to a separate plate or cutting board to cool when it is soft and tender; squash should pierce easily with a fork. The potato and garlic will take the longest; approximately 40-60 minutes.
6. Let all ingredients cool before the next step, which is putting everything in a blender (I use a vitamix).  Apparently, if you put things in when they are too hot, you can have a very messy explosion.  (Not that I would know anything about that.)
7. Scrape the flesh out of the squash and the potato.  Squeeze the garlic cloves out of the skin.  The leeks can just go into the blender as they are.  Nothing to discard there.
8. Working in batches, combine the squash, potato, garlic, leeks, and tofu in the blender till smooth and creamy.  Transfer to a pot.  When all the ingredients are pureed, heat soup and serve, adjusting the salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!