hey guys it's retired at 40 it's about that time of year when the butternut squash
is plentiful so I'm gonna cut some today out of the greenhouse and we're gonna
make some butternut squash soup and then we're gonna freeze dry it
so this is our first full year with the greenhouse and we're kind of down to
just squash now so we've got some spaghetti some butternut and everything
else is pretty much dying back we've had our first snow already so I'm gonna cut
a couple butternut squash so those are just perfect the stem is just starting
to turn brown I think these are gonna be awesome
I think before I make my soup I'm just going to cut the rest of the squash
because freezing temperatures are just around the corner
so I've got my squash now I'm going to slice the top off of it and then we're
gonna cut it long ways down the center we're gonna scoop out all of the rind
and the seeds out of there if you're a gardener separate those seeds put them
on a paper towel for three or four days and you should be good to go for next
year next we're gonna cover a baking sheet with parchment paper we're gonna
start our oven on 425 degrees we're gonna take some olive oil and just cover
the squash you can take a brush like this and you want to just coat it even
on the inside and then we're gonna cover it with salt and pepper just to taste or
if you want you can use some some homemade rub too I'll put a link for my
homemade rub you don't want to overdo it just a little bit as is plenty since
this is also a freeze-dried recipe if you're going to freeze dry it you're gonna
need to butternut squash and that should fill up your four trays so one whole
squash will give you about 6 to 8 cups of soup and depending on the size
obviously and how much vegetable broth that you add in later so we're gonna
flip these over face down because we want to roast them face down and we're
gonna throw them in the oven as soon as it's heated you can also put these in
the instant pot if you want a little quicker version you won't get
as much roasted flavor though if you want to do it on the instant pot you
just put them in for about 12 to 15 minutes and actually the cool thing
about the instant pot is the skin will just peel right off all right into the
oven we go with these we're gonna roast these for about 40 to 50 minutes and if
the skin gets brown and crunchy it's not that big a deal you want the skin so it
does pay off nice and easy I'm gonna set mine for 35 minutes take a
peek at it and then at 35 minutes I'm gonna chop up the rest of the rest of
the ingredients so they're ready when the squash is done so to pass the time
here cut up half an onion you can also use a
shallot we're gonna get a frying pan add a little bit of olive oil to it and once
that olive oil heats up we're gonna add our onion and the onion does not need to
be diced real thin because we're actually going to throw it into a
blender or an immersion blender so it will actually chop it up quite a bit
what we're trying to do is just kind of soften up these onions we're gonna add
just a touch of salt we're gonna cook these for about three to four minutes
until they're softened up and then we're gonna add four cloves of garlic alright
we're gonna add our garlic once our onion is kind of golden brown on the
edges
for cloves total you're gonna cook that for just about one minute my 35 minute
timers going off those actually look really good at 35 minutes I'm gonna get
a fork and we're gonna poke them and see if they're ready so you want your fork
to just pretty much slide through that skin and you can tell if these are
already ready to go so I'm gonna pull them out and let them cool so they're
cool enough to handle that's exactly how you want them to look next we're going
to combine all the ingredients the easiest way to do this is with a really
high power blender like a Vitamix you can use a regular blender it might take
you a little bit longer and you might want your squash to be a little bit more
done you can also use an immersion blender and if you've never checked out
a Vitamix I'll put a link down below for the one I use it's pretty unbeatable
especially for this kind of stuff so the next thing we need is a we need three to
four cups of vegetable broth and I would start with three cups and work your way
up to four depending on how soupy you want the soup to be and just the the
thickness of the squash that you're using next we want an eighth of a
teaspoon of fresh nutmeg 1 teaspoon of black pepper and then a teaspoon of
maple syrup then we're gonna add our onions or shallots and our garlic
and our last ingredient is of course our squash and by now it should be cool
enough to handle we're gonna remove the skins off of this and it should come off
pretty easy now that it's cool and cooked I like to cut it in sections like
this makes it a little bit easier to pull it off if you have a Vitamix that
will actually heat it up as its pulverizing it otherwise it you have to
eat it right away to keep it warm or you'll have to warm it back up again but
there our last step is just to mix it all together down to a smooth
consistency there we go so this is a thicker version if you want
it a little bit thinner you just add another up to another cup of vegetable
broth if you just following the recipe you're ready to serve if you're gonna
freeze dry we're gonna go right onto the trays with it and one batch if it's
about eight cups will do two trays all right I'm gonna pop this in the deep
freeze
let's take a peek at what they look like this morning good and frozen I'm gonna
get the freeze dryer going on pre frozen and we'll get these in
all right so I think we should be good with our default settings so I'm
gonna get this started and I'll see you guys in a little bit hey if you're new
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all right we're all done it took about 32 hours it's just the way you want it
to look
all right well if you've been watching my videos or you've been freeze drying
yourself you know that when a one of anything your freeze-drying turns into
just a powder like this and it's just completely solid you know that you're in
the clear and just gonna it's gonna reconstitute a hundred percent ready so
you just add as much or as little water as you want just depending on what kind
of consistency you want on your soup so I would say this is a total win nothing
says autumn like butternut squash butternut squash is a hearty meal it's
really inexpensive and it's really good for you and now we know it freeze dries
well also you probably noticed that I still have my temporary set up in the
garage of the freeze dryer that's all gonna change soon because coming up real
soon I'm going to show you how to build a stand for your freeze dryer and I'm
gonna incorporate some shelves so you have a place to drain water to you can
keep your oil and other supplies handy in the meantime this is retired at 40
remember to live life simple I'll catch you next week