Butternut Squash Soup

During the summer, in my garden I grew squash! This was such a rewarding planting experience, as I planted my squash producing beauty from seed, and then ended up with multiple beautiful, golden butternut squash! If you love butternut squash or pumpkins, then look at my post on how to grow squash and pumpkins! As with all things that are grown in your garden, you do often end up with A LOT of produce. So here is one simple and easy way to enjoy your butternut squash! Even if you have bought it :D

Butternut Squash Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients:

-1 butternut squash

- Vegetable oil

- 1 Tbsp dried rosemary

-2 Tbsp white sugar

-2 Tbsp white vinegar

-1 onion, diced

-1 carrot, diced

-2 celery stalks, diced

-1 cinnamon stick

-Salt

-Black pepper

-4 cups of chicken stock

Method:

1. To begin, get your squash and a big, sharp knife that you can use to cut through the hard skin of the squash. Also, preheat your oven to 400F or 190C.

2. Cut your your squash in half across the squash. This isn't normal practice, but it makes it a lot easier to handle the squash. Cut these pieces in half so that you have four pieces of squash.

3. Scoop the seeds and pulp out of the bottom quarters of the squash. This is really easy to do with a spoon! 

4. Once you have done this, carefully remove the skin from the squash. I found that using a knife and cutting the skin off, down towards the chopping board, was much easier than using a vegetable peeler. But you do whatever works well for you!

4. Cut these four pieces of squash into inch sized cubes (you will have some strange triangle shapes, but don't worry! The size is only important so that the squash has an even cooking time.

5. Drizzle the squash with about 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil, or just enough to get a light coating over all the squash.

6. Sprinkle the squash with the dried rosemary, sugar and vinegar. Then crack fresh black pepper and salt over the squash. Not too much, but enough to season well.

7. Get in there with your hands and mix it all up! This helps to ensure that every piece of squash is going to be full of flavor! Then put the squash in the oven for 30 to 45 minutes or until golden and caramelized. Turn the squash about half way through the cooking time.

8. Peel the carrot and onion, and dice into centimeter pieces. Wash the celery and cut into the same size pieces. I used the celery leaves as well because I didn't wanna waste them! But you can leave them out if you want.

9. Put 2 Tbsp of vegetable oil into a large saucepan, and heat over medium heat. Put the diced onion, celery and carrot into the saucepan along with the celery stick.

10. You don't want to brown the vegetables, but rather sauté them until the onion is softened.

11. Once the vegetables are softened, add the roasted squash to the pan, and cover with the chicken stock.

12. Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes. This is only so that everything can get heated through!

13. Take the soup of the heat, remove the cinnamon stick and then blend up. If using a stick blender, go and do it straight away! But if you have a food processor, wait for the soup to cool for about 20 minutes.

14. Return to the saucepan and heat up again. Until it starts to bubble slightly.

15. Taste and season well. Serve straight away, or transfer to containers than you can put in the freezer for up to three months, or even in the fridge for up to three days. If soup is frozen, in order to reheat, just remove from the freezer and defrost in the microwave and heat up, or put into a saucepan to defrost and reheat. Super easy!

And enjoy!!! This soup will become a family favorite with its warm, sweet flavors and smooth, creamy texture!! Yum yum yum!!