Smokin’ With the Dutchess – Smoked Butternut Squash Soup

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Just in time for Fall, we have a cool twist to add into the Smokin’ with the Dutchess BBQ recipes archive… Smoked Butternut Squash Soup!

That’s right! Folks, I’ve never tried smoked butternut squash, or even smoked squash of any kind, but I am betting that it is a winner! Give this latest recipe from Hanneke Eerden a shot. If you do and find that you like it, please leave a comment here to share your thoughts!

Smoked Butternut Squash Soup

Smoking meat, that’s what I’ve done so far… but smoking vegetables like squash? Hey, why not! People smoke vegetables all the time! Well, in truth… squash is a fruit, as it contains seeds and is the ripened ovary of a flowering plant! Anyway… let’s get to it!

It took some time to decide what kind of wood chunks I would like to use, or should use. But I couldn’t find a definite answer and in the end I decided to go for plum wood. Randomly picked, no better reason than that it was the first bag in the box with wood chunks. Sometimes making choices can be a lot easier if you just go with the flow!

Some weeks ago, this recipe crossed my mind and it wouldn’t go away. I just wanted to wait for the weather to change into Fall-like weather. Lucky for me, you never have to wait that long in the Netherlands for that! And on a sunny but chilly Saturday it was time to get started! Time to smoke those vegetables… ehm fruit!

The ingredients

1 small butternut squash
Olive oil
¼ teaspoon dried sage
¼ teaspoon granulated garlic
½ teaspoon maple syrup
A few drops of lemon juice
¼ cup white wine
1 – 2 cups chicken stock (I know, that sounds inaccurate but please read on…)
Heavy cream

Putting it all together…

I took out my Weber grill and prepared it for smoking. In the meantime, I cut one and a half butternut in half, scraped the seeds out, put it in a large tray and drizzled the halves with a bit of olive oil.

I smoked the squash for almost 3 hours. The amount of squash was too much for just soup, but I had another recipe that I had to make for next week, so now I could make two dishes in one shot!

BBQ Recipes - Smoked Butternut Squash Prep - After Smoking

Back to the soup. When the squash is tender, remove it from your grill or smoker. Let it cool a bit if it’s too hot to handle, then scoop out the flesh and put it in a blender.

Add the dried sage, the granulated garlic and the maple syrup, along with the wine and some lemon juice. Blend until smooth.

Now it’s time to add the chicken stock. The amount depends on how thick (or not) you want the soup. I like my soup thick, to the point where you can almost use a fork to eat it, but I realize that’s very personal! And that’s why the amount of chicken stock can vary as mentioned in the ingredient list. Blend again until you have the consistency you want.

Pour the soup in a pan and heat until it simmers. Then, season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle the soup into bowls, and add some heavy cream. Oooh smell that smoky flavor!

This soup is a winner, a home run! Everything you could ever want on a chilly day: smoky butternut squash soup! The plum wood was great, but now I want to try other flavors too, of course! No doubt your Thanksgiving will be a tasty one when you serve this!

Bon Appetit! And be sure to check out the BBQ recipes in the Smokin’ with the Dutchess series!

About the Author

Hanneke Eerden is from the Netherlands, and she loves to cook, bake and grill. Cooking has been a passion of hers for a long time. She bought a Weber One Touch Silver kettle grill in the summer of 2009, and from that moment on a new passion in cooking, outdoor cooking, began. You can find more of Hanneke’s grilling and BBQ Smoking creations in our BBQ Recipes archive. You can also check out her other cooking and baking adventures on her main blog, The Dutchess Cooks.