Fall Vegetable Soup with Panchetta Crisps

Todays recipe is the 2nd of 3 Thanksgiving inspired recipes for you lovely readers!!

This week I headed out to Niagara on the Lake for a wonderful (and Windy!) self guided bike tour of some wineries (Shout out to my California Family!). It was a perfect Fall day with the leaves falling and sweaters and scarves were out in full force.

Dangerous Selfie while riding a bike!

The smell of fall, the chill in the air all along with the smells of the wineries really inspired me to make some fall soup for the week.

I can still smell the grapes

Fall Vegetable Soup with Panchetta Crisps

Ingredients:

2 Large Sweet Potato's, Cubed
1 Butternut Squash, Cut in half and seeds removed
1 Acorn Squash, Cut in half and seeds removed
3 Large Carrots, Cubed
2 Heads of Garlic, tops sliced off
2 large Leeks
Handful of Fresh Thyme Sprigs
1/4 Cup Butter
16 Cups Chicken Stock (homemade is better!)
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Thinly Sliced Fried Panchetta to Garnish
Heavy Cream to Garnish

I started off by making a giant pot of chicken stock as I had roasted 2 chickens a few days back and had saved the carcases for stock. This stock boiled for about 6 hours and contains Carrots, Celery Stalks and Leaves, Onions, Garlic, Parsley, Sage, Bay Leaf, Salt, Pepper and Marjoram. I strained the stock first through a strainer then through a fine Sieve. Set aside until ready to use.

Wash and assemble all your veggies for chopping!

In one large oven proof pan assemble your chopped sweet potato and carrots. Season with salt, pepper and fresh thyme leaves. Drizzle with olive oil and place in a 375F Oven

In a second pan assemble the squash and garlic. Also drizzle with Olive Oil, salt, Pepper and Thyme and turn over so the cut side is face down. Place in the oven with the sweet potato's and roast all together until squash is fork tender (about 45 Minutes to 1 Hour)

Once the squash is almost ready to remove from the oven add your sliced leeks (white and light green parts only) to a large heavy bottomed pot with 1/4 Cup of butter.

Remove your veggies from the oven.

Add all the Sweet Potato & Carrots to the Leeks and using a large spoon scrape out the Squash. Squeeze the heads of garlic to get the roasted cloves into the pot as well. Top with your hot stock (If using boxed stock I would have it warming on the stove top already)

Allow the mixture to come to a boil and remove from the heat. Using a hand emersion blender puree the soup until smooth. Adding more stock to get the consistency you want (I like a thick puree)

Allow to simmer for about 10 minutes and you are ready to serve!

Drizzle soup with fresh cream, chilli oil and garnish with a panchetta crisp!