Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Recipe adapted from People magazine – December 2013

I absolutely adore butternut squash, in any incarnation. The flavor of this butternut squash soup is enhanced by roasting the squash in the oven, then adding honey and a bit of nutmeg to the finished soup. A good thing about this soup – you don’t have to peel the squash, which I hate …

Ingredients

2 – 3 pounds of butternut squash (You want to end up with 5 – 6 cups of mashed squash.)
1 Tbs. olive oil
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 Tbs. honey – or ‘to taste’
1 cup half & half
1/8 tsp. nutmeg – or ‘to taste’
1 tsp. salt – or ‘to taste’

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut butternut squash in half. Remove the seeds and fibers and discard.

As you can see, I used 1 1/2 very large squashes and I ended up with quite a bit left over, which was absolutely fine with me. (You want enough squash to end up with 5 – 6 cups of mashed squash.)

Lightly oil a cookie sheet with olive oil. Be sure to use a sided cookie sheet. I used one without sides and had to clean the oven after….. Place squash, cut side down, on the cookie sheet. Bake for 30 – 40 minutes or until squash is very tender when pierced with a sharp knife.

Scrape squash pulp into a blender. (I didn’t have a blender when I made the soup at our Pocono house, so I pureed the squash in batches using my small Nutri Bullet. Hence, the photo of the pureed squash not in a blender, but in a bowl.)

Puree squash with about 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock and honey until smooth.

Place pureed squash in a large saucepan. Add 1/2 cup half & half, remaining broth and 1 tsp salt – or ‘to taste’. Cook, stirring, occasionally, until heated through. Do no boil !!