Home Cooking and a Killer Recipe
My debut mystery, Hidden Rooms, is set in a small Ohio farming town much like the one where I grew up. Like me, my main character, Riley, is lucky enough to have a mother who is a fantastic cook. The book opens soon after Riley’s return to her hometown and features plenty of scenes where her close-knit family comes together to enjoy homemade, seasonally fresh food.
Aside from being a traditional murder mystery, part of the puzzle in Hidden Rooms is Riley’s own medical mystery. Since moving home, Riley has been fighting bewildering health issues, from vertigo to joint pain. Like many people—particularly women—she struggles to find a clear diagnosis and has been left to manage her symptoms as best she can. Part of this includes eating foods that will help her feel her best.
I imagine this Savory Butternut Squash Soup would be the perfect dish for Riley since it offers a mix of comforting, garden-fresh home cooking, along with anti-inflammatory ingredients, like ginger, garlic, and turmeric. Also, since almost the entire U.S. is feeling the deep freeze as I write this, now seems like an ideal time to warm up with some soup, and the ginger gives this recipe a little added heat!
Savory Butternut Squash Soup
1 cooked butternut squash
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup of diced onion (about half an onion)
½ tablespoon minced garlic
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon paprika
¼ teaspoon turmeric
3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
½ cup cream
A Note on Baking vs. Dicing the Squash
I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not peel and dice a squash if I can avoid it! Of course, it’s absolutely fine to prepare your squash that way if that’s what you prefer, but I find it a bit easier to bake the halved squash.
To do so, preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cut the butternut squash into halves and remove the seeds. Brush olive oil onto the squash. Place the halves face down in a baking dish with a cup of water and bake for one to one and a half hours (until tender). Allow it to cool slightly and then remove the squash from the skin.
Heat the olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven and sauté onions. After about 5 minutes, stir in the garlic, salt, pepper, ginger, paprika, and turmeric. Next, add the broth and cooked squash. Bring it to a low boil, stirring frequently.
Remove the pot from the heat. Puree the soup using an immersion blender. (If you need to use a regular blender, allow the soup to cool before blending it.)
Stir in the cream and put the blended soup back on the heat to rewarm it. Once it is hot, it’s ready to serve! I like to add pumpkin seeds as a topping for a little crunch.
Enjoy!
Long-distance runner, Riley Svenson, has been fighting bewildering symptoms for months, from vertigo to fainting spells. Worse, her doctors can’t tell her what’s wrong, leaving her to wonder if it’s stress or something more threatening. But when her brother’s fiancée is killed—and he becomes the prime suspect—Riley must prove his innocence, despite the toll on her health.
As she reacquaints herself with the familiar houses and wild woods of her childhood, the secrets she uncovers take her on a trail to the real killer that leads right back to the very people she knows best and loves most.
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