The Best Butternut Squash Soup

Using only a few simple ingredients yet flavorful and hearty, this soup is what fall is all about! Vegetables that are at the height of their season will always produce the best results! I have never actually followed a recipe when making this soup. I've done it by taste because the ingredients are so few. I decided to write down everything I did and in what quantities and I believe this batch turned out better than any other that I've made! I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family does!

Ingredients:

Six cups roasted butternut squash

1 medium white onion, chopped

6 cups good quality chicken stock, I use Kitchen Basics

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/4-1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup heavy cream

salt and pepper to your tastes

Sunday morning, I was lucky enough to go and root around in my parents amazing garden. I found just what I was looking for in this large butternut squash!

First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Then rinse the squash. Then with a heavy duty chef's knife, cut it into thirds horizontally and then cut each third in half. Scoop out the seeds. Take a glass pyrex dish and pam the bottom. Place the sections of squash in the dish.

Cover with tinfoil and put in your preheated oven for 1 hour until tender. Now you can just relax for a while!:)

After you have taken the roasted squash out of the oven and let it cool a bit, start on your onion. Chop a medium white onion and throw it into a large sauce or soup pan. Pour 1/2 cup chicken stock over the onion and on medium high heat cook the onions until they are tender.

Scoop out all of the flesh from the squash rinds. I used my magic bullet because it blends everything so well. But it does take a little more time because you can't blend as much at once. So if you have a good blender by all means use that! I blended 2 cups roasted squash with 1 1/2 cups chicken stock plus the cooked onions and repeated this 3 times, equaling 6 cups pureed squash with 4 1/2 cups chicken stock blended with it! I hope this makes sense!:) If you have a larger blender obviously you can blender more at once!

Pour the pureed squash mixture into the same pan you used to cook the onions. And begin to warm over medium heat. Add the cayenne and nutmeg and stir thoroughly. Once the soup is starting to bubble, turn the heat to low and add the heavy cream. Take a teaspoon and taste the soup. More than likely you will need to add salt and pepper. I didn't measure how much salt and pepper I added, just did it to my tastes! Then stir thoroughly. Pour the soup into individual serving bowls and sprinkle a little nutmeg over the top!

Enjoy first's and second's like this little guy did!

images by Kar