Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut Squash Soup
Created by Amy Day

1 shallot, sliced thin
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1 butternut squash
4 medium sweet potatoes (not yams), peeled
2 apples, peeled and diced
1 can of pumpkin puree
8 dashes of curry powder
4 dashes of cinnamon
fresh grated nutmeg (about 20 swipes)
fresh grated ginger root (about 1.5 tbsp)
salt and pepper
about 8 cups of homemade chicken stock (I had a lot of sage and thyme in the stock that I used)

1. Early in the day: Cut the butternut squash in half lengthwise (I did this by cutting off a slice from each end, standing it up on the fat end, and going straight through from top to bottom). Scrape out all the seeds. You don't need to peel the squash. Bake along with the sweet potatoes at 350 for about 2 hours, or until everything is starting to get soft (but not mushy - a little firm is OK).

2. When the squash and potatoes are done: Put a drizzle of olive oil at the bottom of a large pan. Add the shallots and onion and cook on low heat until they get soft. Add the apple and the ginger.

3. After they've baked and cooled enough to handle, cube up the sweet potatoes and add them to the pot. Scrape the squash out of its peel and throw that into the pot, in chunks. Add the pumpkin. Add the curry powder, salt, pepper, nutmeg and cinnamon.

4. Add a few inches of chicken stock to the bottom of the pan and turn up the heat to medium-low, so that you're basically simmering everything you've got in there. Leave it cooking this way, covered and on a very low simmer, for a few hours, stirring occasionally, until everything becomes very soft.

5. Use a big whisk (or hand mixer or food processor) to puree everything the pot. It should be soft enough that a whisk does the job. Continue adding chicken stock until it's the consistency that you want it to be, not too thick or too thin. Add more salt, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg or curry powder depending on your taste.

***the recipe I sent you a few weeks back (for squash soup) is actually made so much more easily in the slow cooker! I did it that way over the weekend. Instead of roasting the potatoes and squash, you just peel everything on the ingredient list, dump every ingredient into the slow cooker, and mash it up at the end of the day! So easy and every bit as tasty - and even lower calorie because you can skip the oil you'd have used for roasting and for starting the onions and shallot.