Squash & Fennel Soup

We have so many soups in the archives and I am short on new combinations. I really don’t like a puréed soup besides tomato, so I’ve kept an eye out for inspiration and will trust any recommendation from Justine Doiron. She layers all of the flavors by roasting some of the vegetables to concentrate their flavor, and then cooks some down in the pot so it can be mushed for texture in the soup. She also toasts the farro, ensuring that the all of the soup’s parts don’t just feel boiled in broth.

I used the vegan whipping cream product in the fridge section of Trader Joe’s to keep this dairy-free, but that or heavy cream as she calls for, would be great. The former has a bit of sweetener included, but I didn’t find it to throw off the soup at all. If you use a dairy free alternative, yours may be a different color.

The original recipe calls for kabocha squash, but I had butternut to use up, so I swapped that in. Kabocha has a tougher outer skin that definitely needs to be peeled, and will put up a bit more of a fight than butternut. I knowwwww many of you don’t like fennel, but it is cooked down so much here that it doesn’t have that sharp taste. If you really can’t stand the sight of it, try celery in its place.

Recipe inspired by Justine Doiron.