butternut apple soup!

Hi Everyone, Happy Sunday!  I thankfully have a had a pretty relaxing day!  Slept in, played frisbee with McKinley, homework (which I am done with for the WEEK!), made soup – nothing special!

this soup is really yummy & pretty healthy!

Butternut Squash & Apple Soup

your cast of characters:

Butternut squash, apples, carrot, onion, chicken stock, & olive oil

Step one: Peel carrots & squash, peel and core apples.  Dice carrots & onion, chop squash & apples. Note: that’s only what I did – I realllly don’t think it matter if you dice or chop.  Just do whatever you like!

Step two: Add 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil to a soup pot, heat for a minute or two & add the carrots & onion. I kept them on high for about a minute, stirring a lot & then turned down to low-ish & let them chill out for 3 or 4 minutes.

Step three: After the carrots and onions have had some time alone, chuck in the squash and apples & turn back up to high. Cook about a minute, maybe more. Then you are going to add your stock, I only had bouillon cubes, so I just threw 4 of those in & 4ish cups of hot water. Feel free to go with low-sodium or vegetable too, I bet they’d be great!

Step four: Throw the cover on and let it come to a boil for about a minute.  Reduce to simmer, maybe 20 minutes? (Just until squash is tender) Then I let it sit on the stove, covered for another 15-20 minutes to cool a bit, because I don’t have an immersion blender.

Step five:  After it had cooled a bit, I blended it in my blender in small-ish batches. I blended it up then poured it back into the pot & ladled out the next batch. When there were relatively no chunks left, I called it good. (If you use a regular blender, make sure to remove the middle piece on the top and cover with a towel or potholder so the steam won’t cause the top to blow off)

Step six: I added some spices to the blended final product, just for variety, but it was good without them. I added dashes of cumin, cinnamon, chili powder & garlic salt.  Stir & enjoy! (If your soup has gotten cold by this point -just reheat, stirring often.)

& taking some inspiration from Allison, I roasted up the seeds with some garlic salt.  They are so good – I can’t believe I never thought of roasting squash seeds, only pumpkin!

Enjoy the remainder of your Sunday!

***

Butternut Squash & Apple Soup

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, diced

1 large carrot, diced

2 small/medium apples, chopped

1 butternut squash, chopped

4-5 cups chicken/veggie/low sodium stock

1. Heat olive oil in large soup pot.  Add carrots & onion, stir for three minutes

2. Add butternut & apple, stir for a minute, add stock.

3. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer until squash is tender ~20 minutes.

4.  Blend with immersion blender or in batches with regular blender.

5. Add seasonings if you like & enjoy!