Nothing says Happy Halloween like a fresh pot of homemade roasted butternut squash soup!
The more I have learned of the evils of candy (sounds dramatic, but seriously most of the stuff is SO dangerous and wreaks havoc on our systems and especially the kiddos) the more I want the fall festivities to be focused on family, real food and great memories! So Halloween will be dressing up creating costumes, and enjoying our bowl of delicious butternut squash soup while passing out glow sticks to our friends and neighbors.
No sugar highs, no tummy aches, no neurotoxins flooding their bodies, just good real food and fun! They really don’t care about the candy if it is not made to be about that, so for now we’ll go with this!
Delicious homemade butternut squash soup is SO easy with a little advanced prep. The key is to roast the butternut squash a day or two before you need it.
Here’s the recipe:
About 4 small organic butternut squash
To roast, cut the squash in half, scoop out the seeds and roast face down on a baking sheet greased with olive oil for about an 30 min to an hour at high heat (400). Roast until soft. Then scoop the squash out of the skin and discard the skin.
3-4 organic onions, chopped
3-4 tbsp olive oil
32-48 oz organic chicken broth or stock
2 Tbsp chopped garlic
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1-2 cups milk of choice (I used flax seed milk)
2 Tbsp rosemary and thyme infused olive oil (made with essential oils)
Fresh organic dried parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
If you have pre-roasted the squash and just stored it in the fridge, this could not be easier.
Chop the onion and sauté it in the olive oil until caramelized.
Turn burner to low.
Add 1 large box of chicken stock and the garlic and throw in all the roasted butternut squash.
At this point you can use an immersion blender, or transfer it in batches to a vitamix and purée it all. I add in 1-2 cups of milk and extra stock through this process to get all the good squash purée off the sides of the blender.
Once it is smooth and creamy, add ground cinnamon, drizzle a few Tbsp of the rosemary and thyme olive oil over the top and stir it in. This stuff is liquid GOLD for flavoring all my homemade soups.
Add in salt to taste and grind fresh pepper over the top. Crumble some fresh dried parsley on and enjoy!
