Butternut Squash Chowder

Today is a day for a warm winter soup. This is a slow cooker recipe adapted from Slow Cooker Revolution by America's Test Kitchen.

The original recipe calls for bacon; however, the last recipe that I made in my cast iron pan was Okonomiyaki and hadn't yet cleaned out the bacon grease, so I've just cooked the aromatics in the bacon grease and called it good. I also started with frozen chicken broth and added it frozen to the slow cooker. It took several hours even on high to completely defrost. The original recipe calls for heavy cream, but we have 2% milk at home instead.

Butternut Squash Chowder
1 onion minced
3 garlic cloves minced (from CSA)
1/2 t thyme
1/8 t nutmeg
1/3 c flour
4 c chicken broth
2 c water
3 lbs butternut squash, peeled, seeded, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces (from CSA)
2 bay leaves
1 T olive oil
salt and pepper
8 oz kale
1/2 c milk
1 T sage
1 t brown sugar
Parmesan cheese

Chop butternut squash.

Saute chopped onion, garlic, thyme and nutmeg in bacon grease until onions are translucent. Add 2 c water and whisk in 1/3 cup flour. Stir until thickened. Transfer mixture to the slow cooker. Add in chicken broth, bay leaves, and half of the chopped squash.

Put the other half of the squash into a foil packet and coat with oil, salt, and petter. Put foil packet on top of the soup.

Cook until squash is tender, 4-6 hours on low.

Remove foil packet. Add in chopped kale and cook on low 20-30 minutes. After kale is cooked, put squash from packet back into the soup. Stir in milk, sage, and brown sugar. Add salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cheese as desired.