Just before I moved to Poland, my friend Charlotte gave me this recipe for butternut squash and barely soup. She had tasted it at a church dinner the week before, and tracked it down. She said that she knew I’d like it, and after all, a woman moving to Poland should have a really good soup recipe in her hip pocket.
This soup would have hit the spot when I arrived last March, but butternut squash was not to be found. It’s now autumn – soup weather again, and I still haven’t come across butternut squash. Determined to make this highly praised soup, I substituted sweet potatoes.
I was a little worried when I read about adding 2 inch cubes of raw butternut squash. I was imagining very large cooked chunks of squash that would need to be cut with the side of a spoon as you were eating. I chickened out and cut the sweet potatoes into 1 inch cubes. I shouldn’t have worried. The sweet potato (and I expect the squash will too) sort of disintegrated becoming part of the broth and adding great flavor, color and texture. The soup was delicious and one that I know I’ll make often because it was so easy. Preparing it as I did with 2 sweet potatoes, the soup has 118 calories per cup and over 5 grams of fiber.
The recipe butternut squash and barley soup was submitted by Faye Pietsch and published in the February 2007 issue of Guideposts.
Ingredients
1 turkey wing (or leg, I used 3 turkey drumettes)
1 large butternut squash peeled, seeded and cut into 2-inch chunks
4 celery stalks, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
4 carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 onion, coarsely diced
5 parley sprigs, minced
10 sage leaves, minced
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 cups barley
Directions
- Place all ingredients except the barley in a large soup pot with 16 cups of water over high heat and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to simmer, cook for 45 minutes.
- Add the barley and cook 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the turkey from the soup and let it cool.
- Pick the turkey meat from the bones, cutting into bite-sized pieces if necessary, return to the soup.
- It’s ready to serve.
- If you’re reheating and find the soup is thicker than you’d like, just add a little water.
PS – Ed took this soup to work, and Major Demel felt that this soup was missing one classic Polish ingredient. . . sausage!!! I have to admit he’s right; it would be a great addition. If you’re not counting calories, tossing a little kielbasa in with all of the other ingredients wouldn’t hurt.
YUMMY!
Sweet potatoes are often hard to find until fall. Then I have only found them at Piotr i Pawel. I wanted to do a soup with sweet potato for the shop but we could not get them consistently enough.
I will give this a whirl! THANKS 🙂
city hen – I found these at Piotr i Pawel and scratched the skin to make sure they were orange inside. I’ve gotten white sweet potatoes there in the past, and I knew this needed the orange color.
I just harvested my sweet potatoes and this looks like a great way to use some of them (you can’t turn them ALL into fries).
Sounds yummy! Looking forward to fall cooking.
I made a similar soup with squash, barley, chicken broth, cut up onions and chunks of sweet red pepper, and used leftover stuffing as dumplings on top. It was outrageously good, and fulfilled the herby bread requirement you called to. Now I finally know how to use all that leftover stuffing!
Very resourceful of you, Gale!