I originally made this soup last fall because I really wanted butternut squash soup, but when I went to the grocery to buy some, it was SO expensive for 2 servings. And I was having company over and needed at least 6 servings. This option is much less expensive. In the fall, butternut squash is usually around $1 a pound!
I started with about 5 pounds of butternut squash. In the past, this has meant one large squash, this time, I got two smaller ones. I wear gloves to peel the squash because my skin reacts negatively to the raw butternut squash flesh. It's pretty common, some people are allergic to touching the insides of the squash, and my hands get red and peely and pretty gross. If this happens to you, don't worry. It goes away after a couple hours. But if you want to be safe, just use normal kitchen rubber gloves. Clean ones. For peeling, I just use a normal vegetable peeler. It's kind of a work out, just so you're prepared.
After the squash is peeled, cut it into 1-inch(ish) cubes. You can set these aside for a little bit.
In a large pot (I used the largest one I had that wasn't a broth pot), melt 4 tablespoons of butter. I used salted, but we add salt later as well, so it doesn't really matter if you use salted or unsalted butter. Cut up either one large onion or two small onions (I used a brown onion, I think either white, sweet or brown would be fine. Maybe not a red onion, it could throw off the color of the soup at the end!) and throw into the melted butter. You can cut these roughly and the pieces can be fairly large. You will blend these later, so your onion chopping does not have to be perfect. These will cook in the butter until they start to become translucent.
I love to add carrots and parsnips to my soup. It gives it a little something extra and I came up with the idea last year when I had carrots and parsnips sitting in my fridge needing to be used up before they went bad, so it makes me feel like a chef or a cooking show host or something fancy when I add these.
I take about a pound of each (carrots and parsnips) and wash, peel, then chop them into 1 or 1/2 inch slices. The smaller these are, the quicker the cooking will go. I toss these in with the onions and they begin to soften a little bit.
Now it's time for the soup to start taking shape! I love using homemade chicken broth. For starters, it's free if you ever roast a whole chicken and have a carcass left over. You just toss it in a large pot with water and boil for a couple hours. When the water has become broth, you just strain out the chicken bits and refrigerate the rest! I usually find a layer of hardened fat when I go to use the broth, so I scrape that off and throw it away. If you don't have homemade chicken broth waiting to be used, that is fine. Just use Swanson's.
Pour about 6 cups (a little more or a little less is fine) into the pot with the onions and carrots and parsnips. Stir around and then add your butternut squash. Now you're going to let the broth come to a boil with all these vegetables. It may take a little while, and once it is boiling, you want to keep it cooking until you can easily slide a fork into the carrots, parsnips and butternut squash. We're going to blend these in a minute, so making sure that they are soft is SO important. Think mashed potatoes, people!
You may notice the baguette in the background of that photo. Fresh french bread is a must! Also, I didn't crop this because I thought including a photo of the immersion blender might be a good idea. I LOVE my immersion blender. It makes cooking homemade soups SO easy. It's a Kitchenaid model and it was like thirty bucks. Worth it.
When the vegetables are softened and the soup is ready to be blended, turn off the heat and start blending with the immersion blender. It may take a full 5 minutes, adjusting the speed, moving it around, looking for chunks. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can take out the chunks of vegetables and put them into a normal blender and then return them to the broth and stir together. But this method seems harder.
Once all the veggies are blended, you're going to add about half a cup (ish) of heavy whipping cream to the soup. This is based on preference. You can add more or less or none at all. I like creamier soups, so I pour in about that much. The only seasonings we add are salt, pepper and nutmeg. Since this is such a large batch of soup (can anyone say 'leftovers'?!), you're going to add more seasonings than you'd think. I didn't measure these at all, I just sprinkled, stirred and tasted until it seemed right. I also used cracked pepper to fancy it up a little bit. I probably went through 6 rounds of sprinkling and tasting before it seemed right. And again, this is a preference thing! Do what works for you! Although, if you LOVE salty foods and others may not, maybe put less than you'd prefer and just use salt and pepper shakers on your own bowl. (I have made this mistake before.)
I hope you make this and enjoy! It is SO autumnal and cozy and perfect for Fall. We served this soup with the baguette you saw before and with some chicken and apple sausages that we browned up on the stove. So easy and delicious and we had TONS of leftovers to share. If I'm going to put in the effort to make a homemade soup, you KNOW I want it to last for more than one dinner!
Let me know in the comments if you've tried this out and what you think!
Ingredients:
5 lbs. Butternut Squash - peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces
4 tbsp. Butter
1 large (or 2 small) Onions - roughly chopped
1 lb. Carrots - peeled and cut into 1 or 1/2 inch slices
1 lb. Parsnips - peeled and cut into 1 or 1/2 inch slices
6 cups Chicken Broth
1/2 cup (or to taste) Heavy Whipping Cream
Salt, Pepper, Nutmeg to taste
Quick Directions:
Chop butternut squash and set aside. Melt butter in large pot and add onions. Chop carrots and parsnips and add to pot. Let soften for a few minutes. Add chicken broth. Add butternut squash. Let pot come to a boil and wait until vegetables have softened. Turn off the heat and use immersion blender to make the soup smooth. Add cream and seasonings to taste.
|| Posted by Kate ||
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