Food can be a challenge. It is not always easy to come up with meal ideas. It is not always easy to make something that everyone loves. It is not always easy to think of creative ways to use the same ingredients over and over. This is especially true when you have young children and you are talking about vegetables. If it didn’t involve corn or potatoes, my boys were O.U.T. So I started making soups with pureed vegetables. At first, the skepticism was off the charts. We had to call it “Porridge” after the story “The Three Bears”, because if I would have called it “Squash Soup” they would have taken off for the hills. Still, the boys were not easily fooled and my husband questioned the need to puree vegetables that he could thankfully still chew. But it didn’t take long before pureed soups like potato and leek, butternut squash, or roasted eggplant and bell pepper became regulars on the dinner menu.

Pureed Butternut Squash Soup is one of the easiest. There are three essential ingredients: butternut squash, potatoes, onion.

In a medium stock pot or Dutch oven, add peeled and cubed butternut squash (I highly recommend using butternut squash that is already peeled and cubed unless you have an excess of muscle power and patience), one small peeled and quartered yellow onion, and two small peeled and cubed white potatoes. Then add enough chicken or vegetable broth to cover the vegetables. (Sometimes, if I don’t have broth, I cheat and add water and a bouillon cube). Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until the potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. At this point I add a 1/4 tsp nutmeg and 1/2 c heavy cream or half and half. The soup can then be pureed directly in the pot with an immersion blender (or in a regular blender in batches and returned to the stock pot or Dutch oven). Once the soup is pureed, bring it back to a slow boil over medium low heat for about 10 minutes. Feel free to garnish with anything like toasted pistachio kernels, goat cheese crumbles, gorgonzola crumbles, or Parmigiano cheese.

Now that my boys are older, they have acquired a taste for all kinds of vegetables (although corn and potatoes are still Numero Uno). I still make this soup, and they still refer to it as “Porridge”…