Butternut Squash Soup

This soup is ridiculous. It contains nearly every ingredient attached to fall nostalgia for us. So, as it cooks, the whole house smells delightfully like October. It’s also rich and smooth and nearly too thick to actually qualify as soup. Serve this with a hunk of crusty bread and some good quality butter and everyone will love you.

Also, roasted butternut squash seeds are way more delicious than roasted pumpkin seeds and make a nice crunchy side to this soup as well.

(Please note: this is a pretty sweet soup as written. We add a decent sum of salt to temper it. Sometimes we use garlic salt and that is also delicious)

Ingredients

5 TBSP butter (or more? that’s up to you as you taste the finished soup)
2½ pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 6 cups—2 butternut squashes)
2 cups chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only)
½ cup chopped peeled carrot
½ cup chopped celery
2 small Honeycrisp apples, peeled, cored, chopped (or any apple that is both sweet and tart)
1½ tsp dried thyme
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp crumbled dried sage leaves
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
2 TBSP honey (CHF, of course)
5 cups chicken stock or canned chicken broth
¼ cup whipping cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Cotija cheese

Directions

Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add squash, leeks, carrot, and celery; sauté until slightly softened, about 15 minutes.

Mix in apples, thyme, sage, paprika, and cayenne pepper. Add stock, apple cider vinegar, and honey and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and simmer until apples are tender, stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes. Cool slightly.

Working in batches, purée soup in blender (or if you have an immersion blender, use that directly in the pot). Return soup to pan. Soup can be made one day ahead or can be frozen for up to a month.

When ready to eat, bring soup to simmer. Mix in whipping cream. Ladle soup into bowls and sprinkle with crumbled cotija cheese.