Squash Vichyssoise

In my never ending quest to use up the squash from my garden, I figured that a cold squash soup would be a delightful lunch on a very hot day. Turns out, it was. My favorite Long island Lady, Ina Garten, has a recipe for Zucchini Vichyssoise in her cookbook, Barefoot in Paris. A vichyssoise (pronounced exuberantly as “vish-ie-swaz-ie” by me) is a potato and leek soup. Since I was fresh out of leeks, I used an onion and it worked great. I made a few other changes and it turned out delightfully. As luck would have it, I brought it in for lunch the day after the Cold-War themed elimination challenge on Top Chef. Bob, Mark, and I slurped it up with gusto.

Squash Vichyssoise
Ingredients:
2 medium squash
8 small potatoes
1 large onion (I used a vidalia)
2-3 sprigs of thyme (or 1 tsp. dried thyme)
red pepper flakes (to taste)
1/2 cup white wine
2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
3 Tablespoons cream cheese

1. Peel and chop potatoes and squash into chunks and roughly chop the onion. Everything is going into the blender, so it doesn't need to be pretty, just about the same size so that they cook evenly.
2. Melt 1 Tablespoon of butter and 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil in a dutch oven or stock pot. Toss in the veggies, thyme, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper and saute on medium for 10 minutes.
3. Add white wine and veggies stock and let bubble away for 20 minutes until the veggies are tender.
4. Turn off the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes before putting in your blender.
5. Add cream cheese to the blender.
6. Blend until smooth and check for seasoning. Like we learned from Top Chef, when you take a dish from hot to cold, the seasoning gets dulled. You need to be sure that it is well seasoned when it's still warm so that it will still be well seasoned when it is cold.
7. Chill the soup. If you want to make it fancy, serve with fresh cracked pepper, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and some chopped chives. Enjoy!