Summer Squash Soup

The other day, I went to the grocery store and they had all these "imperfect" summer squashes that they were selling three for a dollar, so I bought six of them. This evening, I made them into soup. Here's what I did:

1. Peel and cube summer squash, put in bowl with melted butter, olive oil, salt, black pepper, red pepper, paprika, cinnamon and about a little bit of brown sugar. Stir it up until it's all coated, then spread on cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Cook at 400°F for about half an hour, until they start to brown. 

2. Chop up two carrots, two celery stalks and two onions. Put in bowl. Cut up about a pound of boneless chicken breasts and put in different bowl with a little bit of Italian dressing. 

3. Heat up soup pot. Melt butter. Put chicken in. Put lid on for a few minutes, then take it off so that the chicken can brown. Once the chicken was browned, I removed it from the pot and put it into a different bowl, which I set aside.

4. In that same pot, I cooked the onions, carrots and celery. I also added some minced garlic, chopped spinach and red pepper flakes, along with a little more butter and salt. 

5. Once that was brown, I took it out of the pot and put it into a blender along with the roasted squash. I blended it until it looked kind of like baby food, then I put it back into the pot, along with the cooked chicken and about two and half cups of chicken stock and a little bit of chicken soup base. I also added about a half cup of heavy cream.

6. Salt to taste. This was when I added some lime juice, ginger juice and white vinegar a little bit at a time until it was adequately bright. Then I sprinkled in some oregano and parsley, plus a few thin slices of gruyere cheese, and called it good.

Personally, I enjoy the mad science aspect of making soup. Add a little of this, a little of that, until eventually it tastes like something you want to eat.