My Butternut Squash Soup!

Very unlike me, but I experimented in the kitchen (I'm usually a strict follow the recipe type!:))

So here it is: 

When I walked in the door of Trader Joes this morning, I spied precut butternut squash bagged and ready to cook with. I have never cooked anything with it before, but had recently had the most heavenly butternut squash soup while eating out, so I grabbed a bag. 

The bag said to cut the corner and microwave for 5-8 minutes then blend with warmed up vegetable broth. I started microwaving, but thought it just did not sound that delicious... so I detoured. 

In the blender, I put one cup of vegetable broth, one cup of raw cashews,  a tablespoon plus of nutritional yeast (NOT active yeast), tossed in a very large roasted red pepper (the kind that comes in a jar), and blended it until smooth. 

Then I put 2/3 C diced onions, 1 minced garlic clove , and 1 large sliced carrot in a skillet over medium heat with some veg. broth (just enough to stir fry with) stirring occasionally. 

After the a few minutes I added a medium sized chopped red potato (I also added some more broth at this point- enough to mostly cover the potatoes). 

I simmered the mixture until the potatoes were starting to get tender (less than ten minutes) and added the squash (remember, I had already started microwaving it). 

I let it simmer until the potatoes were fork tender, adding broth to keep the veggies mostly covered. 

I think I used  total of 4-5 cups of broth including the mixture in the blender. 

Isn't that pretty? 

Then, not as pretty, I added the broth mixture from the blender and let it cool. 

After it cooled, I blended it (I did it in about three small batches). 

Heated it up again, and licked the bowl clean!

Hubby also gave it the thumbs up! 

Now I just need to buy (or make) some focaccia bread to go with- it would be perfect! 

I am sure that there are many butternut squash soup recipes that can be googled in an instant, but I had all these ingredients on hand, and I am pretty pleased with my effort. 

The soup that I make the most (a big batch most weeks) is from the Forks Over Knives Companion Book that this blogger has already shared so I'll let you read it there :) -

http://veggiesforme.com/2011/09/14/cream-of-broccoli-deluxe-soupyum/

You can tell that my experiment was strongly influenced by this recipe.

I almost forgot- I tosses a few spices in. Sage (a good shake), pepper (a few twists of the grinder), and a pinch (good size) of salt (kosher or sea- not sure which).