Butternut Squash Soup

I don’t know about you, but since Purim, I’ve been eating a lot of j-u-n-k! We just have a lot of food in the house that lacks any substance or nutritional value, like bubblegum, wafers, taffies, and cookies {Notice how I did not include chocolate in that list! Calling chocolate junk is just an insult!}. I’ve been craving something delicious, home-made, wholesome…something like a hearty bowl of soup! I’m not even a soup-obsessed girl! I never crave soup. That’s my sister in-law’s department. She would rather have 3 bowls of soup than a chicken main course. I’m not that type. The thing is though is that there is something about soup that just says “home cooked”. Soup is the kind of food that is sitting on the stove, on a low flame, with a soft steam pouring out of the cover. It’s the kind of food that you can’t whip up in 10 minutes (well I guess those powdered soups you could, but that’s obviously NOT the same thing!). It’s more like someone prepared something nice, warm, and delicious just for you. So enough of this peeking in the pantry for unhealthy and non-nutritional treats, time to make something special for you and your family!

This Butternut Squash Soup has been in my family since forever! But I do think we found it originally from the Kosher Palate, which technically only came out 14 years ago. In any case, as you can see from the actual recipe, it’s really no big deal. I’m not going to lie; peeling and cutting the Butternut squashes is a big pain! It’s basically what takes up the whole 25 minutes of prep time, aside from chopping the onion. If you could afford the few extra bucks than buy it pre-cut and peeled. It’ll make the whole process sooo much easier and quicker. If not, then you’re in good company (hehe)! It’s worth the energy!

I actually once went to the supermarket and saw these big cut-up orange chunks, and I was like, “Cool, Cut-up butternut squash!” To buy two big peeled chunks cost less than the actual butternut squashes. I made the soup with my purchase, only to realize later that those were pumpkin chunks.  It still was very delicious, oddly enough. So go ahead, and try this recipe with pumpkin!

Do you have an immersion blender? I really don’t own any cool gadgets besides for a hand-mixer, a sandwich griller, a crock pot, and an immersion blender. The immersion blender is great. Instead of transporting your soup into a food processor, you place your immersion blender in the soup and it does all the work right there! It’s the best accessory for making soup!

Hope you find this soup as nourishing and homey as we did!

Butternut Squash Soup:

Prep time: 25 minutes

Cook time: 40 hour

Yields: 8 servings

Ingredients:

2 medium butternut squashes, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks

1 onion, diced

2 tablespoons oil

2 cups chicken soup broth (or 2 cups water and 2 teaspoons chicken consommé powder)

4 cups water

2.5 teaspoons Salt

Pepper

Instructions:

1.       Sauté the diced onion in an 8 quart until they are soft and translucent

2.       Add butternut squash chunks and allow them to sauté in oil with onions for another 10 minutes. Make sure to stir every 2 minutes.

3.       Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil and then let simmer on lowest flame for 30 minutes.

4.       Let the soup cool for a couple of minutes before using your immersion blender to blend the butternut squash and onions, until your soup becomes a smooth consistency.

Note: If the soup is too thick for you than just boil in some more water. If you like it thick, then leave it the way it is!