Country House Harvest Soup
Ingredients
2 quarts chicken broth
1 medium eggplant, ends trimmed, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 medium yellow squash, ends trimmed, cut into 1-inch cubes
2 medium onions, sliced ½-inch thick
4 medium new potatoes, skin on, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 acorn squash, quartered and seeded
2 green peppers, quartered and seeded
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Put 1½ quarts of the chicken broth in a large pot and set the temperature on low.
Cover two cookie sheets with aluminum foil, then oil lightly.
Scatter the vegetables evenly over both sheets. They may touch, but try not to crowd them. Spray lightly with cooking oil on top, liberally apply salt and pepper, and pop the veggies into the oven.
Start checking for doneness after about an hour. As the veggies brown and caramelize, use tongs to pull them out and place into the chicken broth. The onions and peppers will cook quickly. Keep checking and moving vegetables to the broth every 20 to 30 minutes for everything except the acorn squash.
When the acorn squash is soft and a teaspoon easily slices through to the skin, remove it from the oven and let it cool. When it’s cool enough to handle, scrape out the squash with a teaspoon and add the flesh to the soup pot.
Once all veggies are in the pot, simmer at medium-low for about 20 minutes.
Ladle broth and veggies into a blender until blender is no more than half full. Put the top on—make sure it’s on tight!—and blend until creamy. Pour your batches of pureed soup into a large bowl and repeat the process. Return all the pureed soup to cooking pot and adjust seasonings. If the consistency is too thick for your liking, you can thin it with some of the reserved chicken broth.