Sous Vide Buttercup Squash Soup

Sous Vide Buttercup Squash Soup made extra flavourful with homemade hen stock, whips up quickly to provide warm bowls of comfort for your soul!

Sous Vide Buttercup Squash Soup Inspiration

I have fond memories of slurping my way through countless bowls of hearty soups, prepared mostly by my grandmother, and occasionally, my grandfather.

The soups of my childhood were not starters, but hearty, filling, flavourful main dishes. They were chunky with ground provisions like yams, sweet potatoes, eddoes, cassava, dasheen (taro); flavourful with meat or poultry like oxtail, pig feet and snouts, goat, chicken feet, backs and necks, tripe; fish or seafood and beans, peas, green banana, dumpling and breadfruit, among others.

All made more memorable by homemade fish, beef or hen stock.

The Chicken or The Egg Hen

Homemade chicken stock is great, but if you are looking to step up your stock game, grab a couple stewing hens on your next grocery trip. Feel free to thank me in advance.

Stewing hens are of the more mature poultry variety - AHEM... past their egg-laying prime. They are generally not fed the same diet as their plump broiler counterparts, which means hens develop stronger, mineral and nutrient-rich bones and lean muscles. Hence, ideal stock candidates!

My grandfather used to pluck (pun intended) them straight from the backyard, still flailing and flapping. I am content to procure mine from a local farm, or Caribbean/Asian market, sans flail and feathers.

Don't try to roast or bake a stewing hen, as you would a roaster - it ain't pretty. A low, slow cook does wonders for hen's lean meat and connective tissue. My grandma uses a pressure cooker, or simmers it for up to 24 hours, which yields a top-notch concentrated stock. I successfully replicated it using sous vide and added some to these bowls of sunshine.

Why Sous Vide?

I'll get back to the stewing hen stock in more detail in another post; let's dig into this Sous Vide Buttercup Squash Soup.

Had the Dude picked up what I asked for on his grocery run, you would be looking at bowls of bright orange instead. He couldn't find any Caribbean pumpkin at the store he went to, so he picked up buttercup squash and here we are!

Yes, you can roast or boil the squash, but I sous vide it for these reasons - colour, texture and flavour. Cooking squash this way preserves its vibrant colour, retains its texture and seals in the nutrients and flavour - some of which can be lost when cooked conventionally.

A Quick Meal

You can sous vide the squash ahead of time and refrigerate (for a day), or for freeze it. Or you can toss it into the blender, while still warm from the sous vide bath, along with your choice of flavourings, for a hearty, colourful, easy mid-week or weekend meal.

You may mix in coconut milk or cream, but I find they can sometime dwarf the other flavours and I wanted the stock to shine in this batch. So a little garlic, butter, shallots, curry leaves, thyme, salt and pepper, were added to the mix. We topped our bowls with swirl of homemade creme fraiche for a little tang and visual interest, homemade parmesan crisps for a little texture contrast and cilantro for a little colour.

Warm bowls of sunshine for your soul!

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