Roasted Butternut Squash Soup Recipe, Yum!

by Nancy Hassel, ThisFurryLife.com

There is nothing like the cool, crisp autumn air to inspire me to make a delicious and healthy soup from one of the top harvest picks of the season, butternut squash.  Roasted butternut squash soup is one of my favorite soups to make and I have made this soup so many times, that I don’t even follow a real recipe, I just wing it.  It is a bit labor intensive, but well worth it if you ask me!

Ok here’s what I did,  for a more savory soup, vs. a nutmeg/cinnamon sweeter butternut squash soups which I seem to find more often than not when order or picking up premade soup at a cafe.  And you can of course put your own spin on it as well.

(1) large butter nut squash, peel and cut into similar size pieces, keep seeds aside (don’t throw out!)

Put the cubed butternut squash on a sheet pan, set aside. Next get seasoning you want to use when you are going to roast it in the oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Here is what I used:

(2) cloves of garlic, crush with knife, remove peel and cut into 3 or 4 wedges
(3) sprigs of thyme, remove leaves from stem, and dice up into small pieces
(3-4) small sprigs of rosemary,  remove leaves from stem, and dice up into small pieces

Sprinkle salt and pepper over butternut squash on the sheet pan, drizzle about (1) tablespoon of olive oil over the butternut squash, sprinkle most of the thyme and rosemary over the squash and lastly put the garlic pieces dotted around the squash. (The garlic will roast and be sweeter than if you just blended diced garlic into the soup).

Put the squash into the oven for about 25-35 minutes (some ovens take longer), turn/toss squash on sheet pan about half way through.  (Use a timer if you think you’re going to forget so you don’t burn them!)
While the squash is cooking, dice up about 1/4 cup of white onion, put pot you are going to cook in on the stove or burner.
Also while he squash is cooking, rinse and dry off the seeds from the squash.  Put them on their own sheet pan and sprinkle with salt and set aside for now.
Test the squash after about 25 mintues and see if the squash is done, roasted and cooked to perfection so you can easily blend.

Once the squash is done, take out of oven and set aside for a few minutes.
–> Now put in the sheet pan of the seeds into the oven, lower the temperature to 275, bake for 10 – 15 minutes (or until a few start popping off the sheet pan).
In the meantime, in the pot put (1) teaspoon of olive oil and (1) pat of butter over medium heat.  Put in onions to sautée, season with salt, pepper and remaing thyme and rosemary.  Lower heat to medium low or low depending how hot your burner gets! Stir onions occasionally until they are translucent.

Once the onions are translucent and tender, add in about 1/2 a cup of vegtable stock, stir and then add in all of the roasted butternut squash, stir.  Add in another 1/2 a cup of vegtable stock and start blending with hand immersion blender in pot.  (Go slowly as it can splash up at you and it’s hot, so take your time).

*Note, I like to blend everything together but it will be thick and you will need to add more vegtable stock to get the consistency of soup I like.  If you like your soup thicker or heartier, don’t puree completely.   I added about 2/3 the container of vegtable stock and soup was creamy and not to thick. 

You can add or omit (1) more pat of butter to the blended soup to make it even more silky smooth.   Let sit over low heat to keep warm, stirring occasionally.  Take the seeds out of the oven, taste test one to see if they are crunchy and delish!

Remove soup from heat, spoon into soup bowl, sprinkle a few butternut squash seeds on top of the soup and enjoy!

Serves 4-6 people depending on how much soup you serve! It is so delicious if I do say so myself.  Let me know if you try this recipe and what you think.  If you like it let me know!