Ready for soup season!? Honestly I’m never ready for shorter days and the feeling of an endless winter. But I do find comfort in a hearty bowl of soup! Already I’ve filled my freezer with some soups I’ve cooked up using a variety of winter squash (not to mention a healthy vegetable-packed chili – I will post that recipe soon! Great relief for all of winter’s cold glory!) This recipe here using butternut squash is super tasty and consists of only four ingredients; butternut squash, hazelnuts, garlic and a bit of olive oil! It is so simple yet so delicious, comforting, sweet and nutty! And, even with just four ingredients, you better believe it’s four ingredients full of nutrients, minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and polyphenols!
Where I live I have the luxury of seeing many different types of winter squash all around, from spaghetti to pumpkin to acorn, almost everywhere I go! They add that perfect autumn-decor to the farmers markets, farm-stands, craft stores and grocery entries. But they’re not just decor, they’re edible!
In the basket above, you can find the butternut squash, sitting below a very nice looking plump sugar pumpkin!
Butternut squash has some fantastic health benefits! Let’s begin with its antioxidant content and what that means; antioxidants help neutralize free radicals, helping keep cells healthy. To explain briefly, the body generates hundreds of “free radicals” when converting food to energy, mostly unhealthy T.R.A.S.H. foods (On a side note: Below you will find FIRST STEP to living a Well-Fed Lifestyle. Step 1. Take out the T.R.A.S.H! Transformed Foods – GMO, Processed. Refined foods such as refined sugar, refined flour, refined salts and refined oils. Artificial foods – and Alcohol. Soda, Hydrogenated Oils).
Free Radicals are also formed by breathing toxins in from the air, such as cigarette smoke, pollutants and pesticides and exposure to UV radiation.
When free radicals are formed, these molecules are missing an electron in their outer shells (remember chemistry in high school? We’re back! Briefly, I promise.).
So these Free Radicals want to fill the missing electron and this leads to an electron being taken from your body’s healthy cells! In this process, damage is done to your DNA, to the protein enzymes and cell membranes, thus damaging your body and causing not only an acceleration in the aging process but also creating an environment easy for disease to develop.
Antioxidants are molecules which can safely interact with such free radicals by offering an electron and stop the reaction before cells are damaged.
Important antioxidants are vitamin E, beta-carotene, vitamin C, and selenium. So, back to this recipe, Butternut Squash is an excellent source of such antioxidants, including beta-carotene, which the body converts into retinol, the form of vitamin A needed for healthy eyes, skin and healthy immune system! It’s also packed with Vitamin C and so being high in both vitamin C and beta-carotene packs an immunity boosting combo! As these antioxidants help get rid of free radicals that can damage cells and tissue, this in turn leads to less inflammation. These nutrients help decrease inflammation while improving immunity! Anti-inflammatory foods can help prevent many ailments such as cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders, metabolic disorders, bone and muscular diseases and even cancer.
Butternut squash also has a high fiber content, of both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber! High Fiber foods help with digestion, prevent constipation, help lower cholesterol and help prevent blood sugar spike after eating. In addition, what is also interesting is the electrolyte content of butternut squash, having potassium, magnesium and calcium! Electrolytes help stimulate muscle contraction and nerve impulses, allowing for more control in the movement of fluids through cells. All this, packed into a delicious seasonal vegetable!
Next ingredient, hazelnuts! You’ll need to grab some raw hazelnuts and roast them.
Hazelnuts are nutrient packed nuts for sure, being anti-inflammatory and loaded with vitamins and powerful antioxidants once again! Hazelnuts are a great source vitamin E, again helping to fight aging and disease and have a high content of manganese. They are also high in polyphenols, which again help prevent the damage from free radicals in the body! From Healing Globe Polyphenol Foods read below:
“Polyphenols are chemical compounds that come from plants. They are used by your gut bacteria to make beneficial substances for you, and they help to keep your gut bacteria balanced by some of their antimicrobial effects.
Polyphenols also help to prevent the damage of free radicals in the body. Free radicals are unstable molecules that can damage the arteries and cause serious health problems. Several studies have been conducted in an attempt to learn which foods contribute the highest levels of polyphenols to our bodies.
Eating more polyphenol-rich foods has been shown to create an optimal gut bacterial balance, which, in turn, can reduce your risk for many diseases. If you have a decreased abundance of some beneficial gut bacteria, increasing your intake of polyphenol-rich foods is one thing you can do to improve your gut bacteria balance.
Most vegetables have polyphenols or other antioxidants, while onions and potatoes have moderate to high content of polyphenols. Choose bright colors vegetables with all colors eaten each week, including yellow, blue, purple, red, orange, white and green. Eating three to five servings of vegetables each day is essential for good health.”
This is fascinating and amazing and interesting to me (as is any subject relating to Food As Medicine) as it comes full circle to my previous post WELL-FED Probiotic Protein Greek Chicken Bowl – It’s All Great to Me! and the importance of healthy gut flora and eating probiotics in your well-fed lifestyle! Eat a handful of those hazelnuts raw while you’re cooking up this soup!
Next up, we are roasting garlic! This roasted garlic is like butter when finished! Take an entire bulb of fresh garlic and cut the top off.
Pour olive oil over the top and wrap in foil.
Roasting garlic in the oven brings out a very unique flavor. It creates a soft, mild, buttery flavor! And you guessed it, roasted garlic offers powerful antioxidants with plenty of vitamin C, making it as nutritious as it is delicious. It is also loaded with other vitamins such as Vitamin B1 (thiamin) essential in converting glucose into the energy your body needs to function and helps with a healthy nervous system, Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) which helps with healthy red blood cells and metabolizes carbohydrates and proteins. Garlic is also high in manganese, supporting bone health, and aids in processing carbohydrates, cholesterol and protein. It is a great source of copper, selenium and allicin, which offers some great health benefits to our cardiovascular system.
So, getting into our recipe and healthy healing soup making; cut the butternut squash in half, lay on a baking sheet lined with foil and drizzle a bit of olive oil over. You can place the foil wrapped garlic on the same tray as I did, but I advise to have the hazelnuts on a separate sheet as they will roast faster than the other items.
After about 15 minutes, remove the hazelnuts and using a cloth, roll them around to remove the skin.
After an hour has passed, remove the items from the oven and allow to cool. Squeeze the garlic into a blender or mixer. It smells so good here!
Next cut the butternut squash into sections and remove from skin, placing in blender or mixer with the garlic.
Add a few of the roasted hazlenuts, not too many to over power the garlic and squash flavor, but enough to add that familiar hazelnut taste!
Lastly pour about a cup of water into mix. You can use Homemade Bone Broth for this as well to give an added healthy collagen boost to your soup!
Blend until smooth and creamy!
If serving immediately, pour into pot and warm together ingredients.
Otherwise you can pour into a container and place in fridge or freezer until ready to eat.
Once warmed in pot, pour into bowl and enjoy this powerful packed antioxidant elixir! Dairy Free but creamy, buttery and so wonderful! I sprinkle some roasted hazelnuts on top as well as some parsley!
Free Radicals be gone!
I did pair this with a pork dinner to give you an idea of how to make this soup a complete meal of healthy lean protein, healthy fats and healthy complex carbs!
| Servings |
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- 1 butternut squash cut in half with seeds and strings removed
- 1 bulb fresh garlic
- 1/2 cup raw hazelnuts
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Ingredients
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- Preheat Oven 350F
- Cut butternut squash in half and drizzle olive oil over. Place on foil lined baking sheet.
- Cut top of garlic bulb off and place in square foil sheet. Drizzle Olive Oil over top onto cloves then cover with foil completely and place on baking sheet next to squash.
- Spread Hazelnuts onto baking sheet, use a separate sheet as these will roast faster.
- Place butternut squash in over with garlic and allow to roast about an hour. Remove when squash is soft and easy to cut into.
- Place Hazelnuts in oven and roast for about 15 minutes. Remove, let cool and using a clean cloth, roll them around to remove skin.
- In blender, combine roasted garlic by squeezing out buttery garlic into blender cup. Add roasted squash, and about half the roasted .hazelnuts. Pour about a cup of water (or homemade bone broth) and blend until smooth and creamy!
- You can add to a pot over the stove to warm together or place in fridge or freezer until ready to warm and enjoy.
- When serving, add some leftover roasted hazelnuts to top of soup and sprinkle with parsley if prefer.
- Enjoy and let those free radicals be banished! Here's to a more youthful, healthy and nutritiously well-fed you!