Thoughtless Thursday: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

I’ve been on the search for a new veggie soup that’s not my usual tomato or roasted red pepper.  Butternut squash seemed to be the ticket.  I keep trying to find a way to eat it that I like (as my butternut squash oven fries didn’t turn out the way I liked), and I think I finally found it.  This soup is light, creamy, and reminds me a bit of my zucchini chowder, but sweeter.   It makes about 5 cups of soup at 232 calories and 6.25 grams of fat per cup.  It’s sure to be a hit among those of us who are dieting for the new year, so I definitely have to share for Souper Sunday.

Now it actually requires a bit more thought than my usual Thoughtless Thursday recipes.  It’s actually designed to be very simple if you have a little forethought the night before.  You can roast the squash while you’re cooking your regular supper and have the main ingredients ready to throw into the crock in the morning or over lunch.

Ingredients:

  • 3 pounds butternut squash, peeled, deseeded, and diced into 1-2″ chunks
  • 1 large onion, cut into chunks or rings and separated
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 cups chicken stock (separated into 1 cup and 2 cups)
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/4 cup fat free half and half

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Toss the squash, garlic, and onion until all are well coated in olive oil.
  3. Pour the veggies into a glass baking dish and add 1 cup of the stock.
  4. Bake for about 90 minutes, checking periodically to make sure all the liquid doesn’t evaporate from the bottom.  Add a little more stock if it does.
  5. Stir once during the roasting.
  6. You’ll know it’s done when it’s started to caramelize.
  7. Now, at this point you have 2 choices.  You can pop the roasted veggies into a tupperware container and let them hang out overnight, or when there’s 30 minutes left on the timer, crank your crock pot up to high and add the remaining stock, salt, and pepper.  If you’re waiting until tomorrow, then do this in the morning or at lunch.
  8. Add the roasted veggies and cook on low for 4 hours or high for 2.
  9. Add the half and half and, using an immersion blender, puree the veggies into soup.  You can certainly do this in a regular blender, but be very careful!  It’s hot!

Printable version.

5 thoughts on “Thoughtless Thursday: Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

  1. I have been searching for a butternut squash soup recipe that didn’t include apples – thanks! I have a big package of squash in the fridge and now I know just what to do with it!

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