Sous vide Butternut Squash Soup

I recently tried out sous vide cooking with a SousVide Supreme Demi demo unit. Sous vide is a method of cooking food in vacuum sealed plastic bags in a water bath at a low and consistent temperature for a long amount of time. You can read my product review at Mom Central Food - Cooking with the SousVide Supreme Demi.

My conclusion was that I didn?t think sous vide cooking was right for me since the unit took up too much room and was too pricey. However, if I had a larger kitchen and more storage space ? and the price was lower - I would consider getting a SousVide Supreme Demi. It was a lot of fun to use and I?m always up for new, healthy cooking techniques.

One of the healthy recipes I made was a butternut squash soup from the Sous Vide Holiday Cookbook. This wonderful little cookbook features sous vide recipes for an entire Thanksgiving or Christmas meal from appetizers and entrées to side dishes and desserts.

Sous Vide Butternut Squash Soup

Serves 8

Based on the recipe from Cooking with the SousVide Supreme

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, peel and diced
2 medium butternut squash, peel and diced (about 2 pounds)
3 small apples, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1 quart of vegetable broth

Directions:

Fill and preheat the sous vide unit to 182 to 185 degrees F.
Warm a saute pan over medium heat. Add olive oil and sauté onion until translucent. Remove from heat and let cool.
Divide all the remaining ingredients - except the broth ? evenly into two large, one gallon food-grade pouches. Divide the sautéed onions and add each half to the bags. Toss to coat the squash and apple with the seasonings.
Vacuum seal the bags to remove as much air as possible.
Submerge the pouches in the sous vide unit and cook for at least 1 1/2 hours until the squash and apples are quite soft. (Note: Check the pouches after 20 minutes to make sure they?re fully submerged. If they are floating, weigh them down or open the pouches and re-vacuum seal them.
When the squash is cooked, remove the pouch from the sous vide unit, and pour the contents in a soup pot on your stove.
Add the broth and puree the soup with an immersion blender.
Heat and serve.

Nutritional information

Calories 75
Calories from Fat 23
Total Fat 2.6g
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 0mg
Sodium 388mg
Total Carbohydrates 10.8g
Dietary Fiber 2.1g
Sugars 7.2g
Protein 3.3g
Vitamin A 3%
Vitamin C 20%
Calcium 2%
Iron 3%

Nutrition Grade A from CalorieCount 

Weight Watchers POINTS = 1

This Mama?s tips

You can use a low sodium chicken broth instead of vegetable broth. However, this will increase the calories, fat and sodium content.
The original recipe suggested using tart green apples. I used apples from our tree, which were red and tasted like Macintoshes. Any sort of apple should work.
The seasonings make this butternut squash soup very spicy. You may want to cut back on the black pepper. Or you can experiment with other spices like curry or cumin.
If you don?t have an immersion blender, you can puree the butternut squash in a blender or a food processor. Make sure to add some of the broth to the squash and apple mix to make it easier to puree.

Sous vide Butternut Squash Soup is a post from: This Mama Cooks! Stop by for more healthy recipes!