An orange dinner

Normally I like a little more color variety on my plate, but when I made this a couple months ago, it was delicious. In the bowl is Butternut Squash soup; on the plate are orange and ginger quick-glazed carrots, and a slice of no-knead bread, made according to Mark Bittman's recipe.

The soup is really amazing. It's essentially foolproof and always comes out tasting rich and creamy. It tastes, in fact, like it must have about 500 calories of cream in it, but it's actually just squash and chicken stock (we've made it with vegetarian stock too and it's still pretty good).

Here are the details:

Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
1 butternut squash (c. 3 lbs), peeled, seeded, cut into 4 large pieces
2 tbsp butter
1 c chopped yellow onion
1 clove garlic, minced
5 cups chicken stock or broth (you can substitute veggie broth)
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/8 tsp ground white pepper
Creme fraiche, sour cream, or nf yogurt for topping (we usually omit this)
Chopped chives or parsley for topping
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place squash pieces in a flat baking pan. Pour about 1 cup water around squash. Bake until soft, about 1 hour. Remove to a plate and cool. When cool enough to handle, scoop out squash pulp. You should have about 4 cups. Set aside.

In a large soup pot over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion and garlic and saute until soft, about 5 minutes. Add squash pulp and 1 cup of the stock and mix well. Transfer to a food processor or blender in batches and process until smooth. [we use an immersion blender, and that works much better here if you have one] Return to pan and add the remaining 4 cups stock and seasonings. Simmer, uncovered, until flavors are blended, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Ladle into bowls and top with cream, chives, and/or chutney.
(Recipe from Maryana Vollstedt's The Big Book of Soups & Stews - a great book, by the way)

Orange and Ginger Quick-Glazed Carrots
Ingredients
A pound of carrots (more or less), cut into 1/4" coins (i.e. on the diagonal)
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp minced ginger
1/4 Orange juice
1/2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper
Directions
In a small to medium saucepan over high heat, melt butter and add carrots, sugar, s+p, and orange juice. Bring to a boil and cover. Turn heat down to medium low and cook for about 5 minutes.
Uncover, raise heat slightly and add ginger. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the liquid evaporates, and then turn heat down to low and cook a couple more minutes until the carrots are tender.
Serve with a garnish of chopped fresh parsley.
The timing and amount of ingredients are quite flexible in my experience; so long as you get the liquid to evaporate before the carrots turn completely soft and soggy you'll be in the clear.
[from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything