Roasted Butternut Squash Apple Walnut Soup

Now that I seem to have my mind back (maybe it was the massage I got today!), I can write this up for you. It’s very tasty, and makes a LOT of soup. We froze about half of it. I think it makes 8-10 servings.

I threw this together out of my own head, but a special thanks goes to reader Caroline Cox for sending me a recipe that included toasted walnuts! I hadn’t thought of that, and they are fantastic with the squash.

Most butternut squash soup recipes will have you peel and cube the squash while it’s raw, then boil the pieces. Mine roasts the squash instead, which means you won’t have to deal with cutting it (other than in half) while it’s hard as a rock. Nice, right?

Butternut Squash Apple Walnut Soup

Sometime before you want to make the soup, roast:

• one butternut squash (2-3 pounds)

Cut in half lengthwise, scoop out seeds and “strings”, and place cut-side-down in a glass baking dish on top of a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Bake at 400 degrees for an hour to an hour and a half, or until the peel looks wrinkly and the flesh is soft. Then you can peel it super-easily.

(Left-handed videoing while right-handed peeling in lowish light doesn’t make for a great video, but here it is.)

Melt:

• butter (1/2 stick)

Add:

• 2 chopped onions
• 2-3 chopped carrots
• 2-3 chopped apples
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• salt, pepper, nutmeg

Cook until carrots and apples are soft, onions translucent, and walnuts are toasted. Then, add:

• cooked butternut squash
• 1.5 quarts (6 cups) chicken stock

Stir to break up the squash and combine everything, and heat through. Remove from heat. Then, use your immersion blender to blend the soup completely. Splash in

• some milk or cream

…until it’s the desired thickness. Then serve.

You can garnish with a dollop of sour cream, a drizzle of heavy cream, toasted chopped walnuts, or very thin cooked apple slices (I cooked them in a pan with butter while my soup was heating through).