I love butternut squash in all its forms, but I especially love it as soup. A few weeks ago, I was getting ready to host our inaugural supper club for my best gals and my starter of choice was butternut squash soup. The first day of fall was here and I was ready for soup season. Too late I had realized I cut up all my onions for the roast chicken I was preparing so I used leeks instead of onions as the fragrant base of this soup and let me tell ya. I may never use onions again. I caramelized the leeks until they were nice and jammy and UGH they added such a wonderful flavour. Last minute I added some sourdough croutons and this dish as a hit! Serve with croutons or grilled cheese, this soup is a 10/10 fall must eat.
Ingredients
2 Butternut Squashes
½ cup Butter
3 Leeks
3 cups Chicken Stock (or veggie stock if you want to go vegetarian)
1 Bay leaf
3 sprigs of Thyme
Hint of Nutmeg
Heavy Cream (omit if you want to make this dish vegan)
Directions
First, halve your butternut squash and scoop out the seeds. Coat the open faces with olive and roast, face down on a baking sheet for 40 minutes at 400℉. Your fork should easily be able to pierce the squash.
When they’re out of the oven, peel the skin off, mash or dice up the squash and set aside.
In a heavy bottom pot, melt your butter and add your thinly sliced leeks. Salt and keep a close watch on them, stirring frequently so they don’t burn. You want to caramelize them to maximize the flavour, so cook for about 15-20 minutes. Once they’re ready, add your bay leaf, sprigs of thyme and about 1 cup of stock. Simmer for a few minutes, then add your butternut squash and using your spoon, begin to break down the squash a little more. Once it's pretty broken down, add the rest of your stock. I wrote 3 cups in the recipe, but it’s really up to you and how thick you like your soup. Let that all simmer together for about 10 minutes then remove the long strands of the thyme sprigs and the bay leaf.
Transfer your soup into a blender or use an immersion blender right in the pot and blend until smooth. Once it’s all blended, add it back into the pot, add in a splash of heavy cream and season with nutmeg (just a pinch!), salt and pepper.
Serve with croutons or grilled cheese. YUMMMM!
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