Butternut Squash Soup

This is the soup I ended up using the Indian Inspired Vegetable Broth for, and I was pleased that the bitterness I was worried about did not come forth in this soup. However, if I had to do it again I would use less butternut squash. The grocery store had smaller squash than what I was hoping for, so I ended up using two. One and a half squash or one large squash would have been perfect, I feel. Hindsight is 20/20 I suppose.

This is a wonderfully hearty soup, and is very filling. It does take a little more prep work with roasting the squash beforehand, but if you don't you risk having a watery, much less flavourful meal. I also find that roasting the squash softens it enough to make it infinitely easier to work with.

Butternut Squash Soup
Author: Amanda
Difficulty: easy
Serves: 8+

Ingredients

• 2 medium butternut squash (or one large)
• vegetable oil, for roasting squash
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 jalapeno pepper, deseeded
• 2 inches fresh ginger
• 1 recipe Indian Inspired Vegetable Broth
• 1.5 cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Split the squash lengthwise and scoop out the insides. Brush with vegetable oil and roast in the over at 350F for approximately 1 hour, or until easily pierced with a fork. Allow to cool, then peel and cube the squash. Dice the onion and jalapeno and mince the garlic and ginger. Saute in butter over medium heat for 5-7 minutes, until the onions are soft and translucent. Add the cinnamon and combine well. Add the cubed butternut squash and broth, bring to a boil, and simmer partially covered for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat to puree the soup, add the cream and heat through. Serve. Leftovers may be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Step-by-Step Photos

Split the squash and use a sturdy spoon to scoop out the seeds and goop (I believe that is the technical term). I think this is the hardest part of the recipe, so once this is down you are good to go.

Brush all exposed squash flesh with vegetable oil and roast at 350F for about an hour. The squash will soften and turn a lovely golden colour and be super delicious.

While the squash is roasting, you can prepare everything else. Deseed and dice the jalapano (though you could leave the seeds in if you wanted a pretty spicy soup), dice the onion, mince the garlic, and ginger. Typically I put the ginger through a microplane, but since the entire soup is about to be pureed, it is not really necessary.

Once the squash is cool enough to handle, peel and cube it up. I used a knife and wasn't too picky on keeping the peel as thin as it could have been, but there was still (way more than) enough squash for the soup. Roasting also makes peeling the squash a dream in comparison to working with it raw.

Melt the butter over medium heat in a large pot.

Saute the vegetables and aromatics in the butter until the onion is soft and translucent, about 5-7 minutes.

Add the cinnamon. You'll want to stir it together pretty well so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot. As a side note, I absolutely love the smells of butter + onions + cinnamon. It doesn't get better than that.

Add the cubed butternut squash and vegetable broth.

Bring the soup to a boil, then turn down the heat to maintain a simmer for 20 minutes with the lid cracked open to allow steam out. Now the soup is ready for pureeing.

Turn off the heat and either blend with an immersion blender or a regular blender carefully to avoid splatter.

Add the heavy cream, salt, pepper, and heat through. I ended up using 1/2 teaspoon of salt.

Serve. As you can see, I unfortunately had lost the good natural lighting at this point (curse you, winter months!) so the soup appears more brown than it actually is. That's okay though, the picture-taking is always a work in progress for me. Enjoy!