Red Kuri Squash and Roasted Fennel Soup

Sometimes I wonder if I am alone in my belief that a squash soup should not taste like a pumpkin pie.

This fall I’ve ordered a few squash soups while out and about and they have been filled with the usual pie suspects: cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple syrup (or an unusual suspect that keeps creeping in, the curry spice blend). All of these spices when used in moderation can really enhance a soup, but with the squash soups I tasted they really tended to mask, overpower, and even bring the dish into the pie dimension.

My mom had requested a squash soup for Thanksgiving dinner so I started a search for a recipe that avoided common pie components and that would wake up the squash without masking its flavor. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much out there that didn’t include the suspects listed above - it seems that squash soups are really in a rut.