Yummies

Hey, just felt like sharing a recipe for one of my favorite fall foods: roasted butternut squash soup. It's like, so good.

It's dairy-free but still so creamy somehow, and you can make it vegetarian by substituting vegetable stock for the chicken stock.

I like to make a lot, either to share with people or to freeze some for later. So this serves about 5-8 people. Also, it tastes so much better if you can use all organic ingredients (stock and veggies are pretty cheap).

Ingredients:

2 medium-large butternut squashes

2 quarts/cartons chicken stock (homemade or store-bought is fine).

2 stalks of celery

1 large onion

1 large carrot

3 shallots

2 apples

olive oil

cayenne pepper (or chile powder is fine too)

curry powder

allspice

cinnamon

rosemary

salt and pepper

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Peel and chop squash into 1-inch chunks, scraping out all seeds from the middle (this is a pain in the ass). Arrange in a large baking dish with shallots (peeled and chopped in half) and sprigs of rosemary (dried rosemary is fine too). Season generously with salt and pepper, and drizzle a little olive oil over the whole thing. Roast in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until squash is tender.

Chop the onion, peel and chop the apple, carrot, and celery (you don't want celery strings in your soup). Heat a large stock pot over medium-low with a little oil or butter (I like to use butter for this, you just need a little). Once the pot is hot, pour in the onion, carrot, celery, and apple. Season generously with salt and pepper. Cook them all together for 10-15 minutes until the veggies are soft and translucent. You don't want to brown them or caramelize them, so make sure the heat isn't too high. At this point, pour in the roasted squash and shallots, and then pour in enough stock to cover everything. Add in a healthy dash of cayenne, a tiny dash of curry, a regular dash of allspice, and a regular dash of cinnamon. It's very technical so get it right. Bring soup to a boil and then lower heat. Simmer for 5 minutes. At this point, you must blend the soup. If you have an immersion blender it is so much easier, but it can be done in a regular blender. Just add the soup in small quantities, and go REALLY slow. Once blended, if the soup is too thick, you can add a little stock to thin it out. You want it to be thick, but not like baby food. Taste for seasoning, and add whatever is missing. And then, voila! Soup du jour!

Serve with a little dollop of sour cream or yogurt, or toasted nuts if you're fancy. Crusty bread is a must!

There you go loves!