Fennel & Squash Soup with shrimp

Making use of the leftovers from Christmas dinner. Squash is best roasted with garlic and then combined with the garlic to create a squash and roasted garlic mash, yum. It is pretty simple to do and always save the seeds and toast them while the squash is baking.

Roasted Squash
1 large butternut squash
1 whole bulb of garlic
oil
salt & pepper

Split the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Brush with the oil and season with salt & pepper. Peal all the cloves in the bulb of garlic. Divide the cloves of garlic between the two halves of squash. Place the squash cut side down on a baking sheet with the garlic in the cavity and bake in a 350F oven until soft.

When the squash is done let it cool. Scoop out the flesh and push through a food mill or place in a food processor with the garlic cloves and process until smooth.

The flesh is quite sweet but if you prefer add a bit of maple syrup and serve as a side dish.

This soup makes use of the sofrito technique. Cook the vegetables until most of the water evaporates and concentrated the flavours. I think this recipe could be improves with the addition of some herbs such as thyme, rosemary, tarragon. If you were to add some herbs add them when you add the squash & broth.

Fennel & Squash soup with shrimp

Ingredient	Calories	Protein
4 fennel bulbs (1400g)	435	17.4
1 1/2 tbsp oil	145
3 med. onions (105g)	105	2.3
3 carrots (198g)	81	1.8
1 celery stalk (131g)	18	0.9
4 cloves of garlic (15g)	27	1.1
454g shrimp (peeled yeilds 366g)	256	47.6
4c butternut squash (782g)	313	7
2 litres chicken broth	80	8
1/4 c pernod	150
Salt & Pepper

Total Calories: 1610
Total Protein: 86.1

Per Serving (8 servings): 201 Cal. 10.76g protein

Directions
1. Chop the fennel, onion, celery, carrot. Crush or finely dice the garlic.
2. In the soup pot add the oil and on medium heat start cooking the vegetables with some salt and pepper. The lid should be slightly ajar.
3. When the most of the water has been cooked out add the butternut squash, Pernod and chicken broth.
4. Bring to a boil, taste and season if necessary.
5. Turn off the heat and add the shrimp.
Done