Creamless Creamy Squash Soup

I made this soup for my mom when she was here this weekend. Soup seemed appropriate since it was frigid and snowing. Sigh. This is from the Gourmet Cookbook.

Ingredients

• 1 celery rib, chopped
• 1 medium carrot, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons fine-quality extra-virgin olive oil (preferably Tuscan) plus additional for drizzling
• 1 lb winter squash such as butternut, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1/2 lb boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 whole fresh peperoncino (small hot Italian green pepper) or 3/4 teaspoon dried hot red pepper flakes
• 2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
• 3 1/2 cups boiling water plus additional for thinning
• 1 crisp amaretto (Italian almond macaroon), finely crushed (2 tablespoons)

Directions

1. Cook celery, carrot, and onion in 2 tablespoons oil in a 3-quart heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until tender but not browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Add squash, potatoes, peperoncino, and sea salt. Stir in 3 1/2 cups boiling water and simmer, covered, until vegetables are very tender, about 20 minutes.
2. Remove and discard peperoncino (if using pepper flakes, leave in soup). Purée soup in batches in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids), adding more water to thin to desired consistency.
3. Serve soup drizzled with additional oil and sprinkled with amaretto crumbs.
   

Results

As usual, I didn't have some of the ingredients, like amaretto crumbs and peperoncino. Luckily, butternut squash soup is pretty hard to mess up, I think. I left the skins on the potatoes since we weren't really going for looks and the skins are healthy. When I ate the leftovers I mixed in a dollop of lowfat plain yogurt to give it a little zing (and because it was REALLY hot), and that worked well.