Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

 Holy hell it's October. How did that happen? 

Well, since we're here, let's get October started right with a nice cozy cool-weather dish, shall we?

This is my second attempt at this recipe (I wrote about the first one here), and I'm really happy with how it turned out this time. This recipe is made to our tastes. I added the parsley and thyme to add an extra dimension of flavor. It ended up pretty mild, but still very tasty. It was perfect after I added oyster crackers (this is how I feel about all soups, though). Feel free to play around with the flavor profile to make it to your tastes.

Ingredients

2 Tbsp butter

1 small onion, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

1 medium carrot, diced (I used baby carrots, since that's what I had, and ended up using about 24)

2 medium potatoes, cut into ~1" chunks

1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cubed (I used this tutorial)

1 (32 oz) container chicken stock

handful of fresh parsley, chopped (I ended up with about 2 Tbsp after chopping)

dash of thyme (maybe half a tsp)

milk (optional)

Directions:

1. Melt the butter in a large pot. Add the onion, celery, carrot, potatoes, and squash and cook for 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. 

2. Add enough of the chicken stock to cover vegetables. Add the parsley and thyme. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 40 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.

4. This is where it gets tricky. An immersion blender would be ideal here, but alas I do not have one (yet). If you have a blender, transfer the soup to it, and blend until smooth. I don't have one so I used my food processor instead. 

5. Return soup to the pot, and mix in any remaining stock to attain desired consistency. You could also add milk for a creamier consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

And that's it! From start to finish, this takes about an hour and a half. Cutting the squash is the most time-consuming part, so if you're making this on a weeknight I suggest prepping that the night or the weekend before, and storing it in a baggy in the fridge until you're ready for it. I also suggest baking the seeds, they taste just like pumpkin seeds! 

facebook | twitter | instagram | bloglovin

Butternut Squashed

Once every few weeks, a friend of ours will come over and we'll all prepare this big meal together. Last night was one of those nights. The menu for the evening was butternut squash soup, roasted chicken, roasted artichokes, pumpkin risotto and an apple raspberry crisp for dessert. 

Today I was planning on sharing the butternut squash soup recipe with you, but with all the craziness that was going on, we sort of forgot one key ingredient while preparing the soup: the butternut squash. We had boiled all of the other veggies until they were soft, but we had to add the butternut squash in raw, so the texture of the soup ended up more fiber-y than creamy as intended. So once I actually get that right, I'll share it. I was a little intimidated by the prospect of having to cube the squash, but I used this tutorial and it ended up being pretty easy! Just watch your fingers. 

I also plan on sharing the pumpkin risotto with you at some point. It was my first time ever making risotto and it actually came out pretty well, if I do say so myself.

The moral of the story is, I don't have a recipe for you today, but I should have some good ones coming soon! I hope you all are enjoying your weekend!