Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

As the season changes and the air begins to get crisp and cold, its a calling for hearty warm your belly soups. During fall, you see a variety of pumpkins and squashes of different color, shapes and sizes. Many use these pumpkins and squashes to decorate their homes and lawns with the beautiful colors of the fall season. I’m not one to switch my whole house decor after every season but hats of to everyone who has the time and space in their house to store those decorations. I’m the type to fully embrace the season through sense of taste and smell. Anyone that knows me, I am a candle junkie. Every season “stock up” at Bath and Body Works on their seasonal candles so my house always smells “to the season”. My home smells like fall, down to my kitchen where I warm up my home with my fall recipes.

Today I am sharing my favorite fall soup recipe: Creamy Butternut Squash Soup. This soup has the flavor of and color of cheddar cheese. My daughter actually calls it “cheese soup”!

A great price for butternut squash is anything under .99 cents a pound. In the fall and winter months, I’ve seen butternut squash as low as .79 cents! I usually stock up on a few squashes because they can be stored up to 2-3 months in a dark cool place. This recipe uses 1 squash for all those who are new to cooking butternut squash.

To start, fill your steamer pot with water and bring to a boil. If you don’t have a vegetable steamer, you can simply just boil water in a regular pot to cook your squash.

Take your butternut squash and cut the bottom half off the top half. Then cut both ends in half. As you can see the bottom portion has seeds and pulp. Scrape the seeds and pulp out with a spoon. I love roasted butternut squash seeds. They taste like popcorn! So don’t throw them out. Set the pulp and seeds aside in a bowl of water.

Chop the squash into chunks and place in steamer basket. Allow to steam for 20 minutes or until you can pierce it with a fork just as you do to check if potatoes are tender. While its cooking, you can turn your attention to the pulp and seeds. Turn oven on to 375 degrees. Separate the seeds from the pulp. Set the seeds on a paper towel to absorb the water. Line a cookie sheet or baking tray with parchment paper. Place seeds on parchment paper. Drizzle your favorite oil on the seeds. I used canola oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper and toss the seeds to coat them with the oil and seasonings. Place tray in the oven and bake for 25 min. Halfway in the roasting, Flip/move the seeds around. Set aside and allow to cool.

When your squash is cooked, allow to cool. Using a spoon scoop out the squash part from the outer skin.

Great job!

In a large pot, heat up your oil. Roughly chop up and onion and 5 cloves of garlic. Add salt, pepper and the onions to the oil and cook until soften. Then add the garlic, careful not to burn them. Next add your squash.

Add 1 1/4 cup of vegetable or chicken stock
1 1/4 of water
4 ounces (half the stick) of cream cheese (cubed)
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon oregano leaves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon chili powder

Cook for 25 minutes.

Using a hand blender, blend all the ingredients until smooth consistency.