Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Description
When all of the activities get cancelled, I have time to make treats like this for an ‘after school snack’. Borrowed from Chef John’s version on Allrecipes, this is one of those soups that you can play with and always have it work out, though we loved it pretty much straight up. Definitely finish it with something creamy, definitely consider browning butter, sizzling some fresh herbs in it and then using both in the soup, definitely spend an extra couple of minutes crisping up a garnish – enjoy!
Ingredients
1 large butternut squash, halved and seeds removed
1 large onion AND 1 to 3 carrots – all chopped
6 cloves of garlic
olive oil, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper for roasting
6 + c. good chicken broth
2 T. EACH maple syrup AND apple cider vinegar
Garnish and finishing ideas – a pinch of cayenne, butter roasted pepitas/nuts/herbs, coconut milk, sour cream, crème fraîche, chopped fresh herbs
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400 and lightly oil a large baking sheet. Add the squash, onion, carrots and garlic, lightly cover the vegetables with more olive oil and a good sprinkling of salt and freshly ground pepper. Roast all for about an hour until the squash is tender and then leave it to cool until you can handle it.
Scrape the squash into a blender along with the other roasted vegetables and pulse until smooth, adding a bit of broth if it’s too thick to blend properly. Scoop the blended mix into a large soup pot and then use some more broth to ‘clean’ the blender, pouring all into the soup pot as well.
Slowly heat up the puréed vegetables, broth, syrup and vinegar and bring it all to a simmer. Allow the soup to cook on low for about a half hour to blend the flavors, check it for seasonings, add salt and pepper if needed, and add broth to achieve the thickness that you wish.
We preferred to dish it up and garnish each bowl as we wished – I recommend a bit of cream and brown butter salted pepitas!
