Butternut Squash Soup

Course Main Course, Soup

Cuisine American, Southern

Keyword butternut-squash-soup, southern-butternut-squash-soup

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 1

Total Time 1 15

Servings servings (may vary)

Calories 214kcal

Soup:
3 Tbsp salted butter
3-4 lb butternut squash (about 8 cups cubed) peeled and cubed, reserve seeds if roasting
1 medium sweet potato peeled and cubed
2 medium honey crisp apples peeled, cored and diced
1 medium onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
32 oz chicken stock
1 1/2 tsp salt dvided use
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup heavy cream
fresh thyme and sour cream for serving
Roast Seeds:
1-2 tsp olive oil
salt and smoked paprika to taste

Make Soup: Heat butter in a large 6 quart pot or Dutch oven, over medium high heat. Add onions. Cook for 2 minutes just until beginning to soften and brown. Add garlic, cooking for 1 minute longer. To the pot add squash, sweet potato and apple. Stir to coat with butter.
To the pot add chicken stock and a large sprig of fresh thyme. Season with 1/2 tsp salt,. Cover pot and simmer on medium-low heat for 45-60 minutes, until squash is fork tender. Remove thyme stems from pot.
Ladle cooked vegetables and broth into a stand blender and puree. Return puree to pot adding heavy cream, reserved salt, pepper, turmeric, cayenne, ginger and nutmeg. Mix together simmer over medium for 5 minutes.
Keep warm until serving garnished with fresh thyme, roasted seeds and sour cream.
While Soup Cooks Roast Seeds: Remove seeds from stringy squash fibers. Rinse well and pat dry with paper towels. Toss with 1 1/2 teaspoon olive oil, salt and smoked paprika. (eyeball amounts) Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast for 10-15 minutes in a preheated 375°F oven. Set aside to cool, then serve as a garnish for soup.

Roasted Seeds - While it's perfectly delicious all on its own, butternut squash comes with its own garnish in the form of seeds. Once seasoned and roasted they add texture, visual appeal and a delicious flavor to the soup. Roasting gives them a flavor very similar to popcorn. You could use pumpkin seeds or pine nuts, instead.
Onion - You can use sweet onion or yellow onion for a stronger onion flavor.
Savory Herbs - You could use parsley or fresh chives for garnishing.
Sour Cream - You could drizzle crema on top, creme fraiche or plain Greek yogurt in place of sour cream.
Vegetable Stock - You could use vegetable stock in place of chicken stock.
Coconut Milk - Heavy cream will give the soup a silky rich flavor. You could adapt this recipe using coconut milk in place of heavy cream.