Roasted butternut squash soup

I braved the grocery store pre-Nemo just to get the ingredients for this soup. My storm essentials list consisted of butternut squash and cream cheese. This is the first time I used frozen butternut squash…and I did some advanced math to figure out 6 cups was about 2 bags of frozen, cubed butternut squash.

The original recipe called for cooking the butternut squash in the broth mixture at a simmer for about 20 minutes, but I like the added flavor from roasting it. If using fresh butternut squash, the roasting part would probably take about 45 minutes. It also called for a half-stick of butter, but I thought that was a little excessive and decided to use olive oil instead.

The cream cheese gives it a thick, creamy texture without using actual cream and the cayenne pepper gives it a little kick. This can also be made vegetarian by using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.

Mise en place

Roasted butternut squash soup
Source: adapted from allrecipes.com
Serves: 6

Ingredients
6 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1/2 tsp dried marjoram
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 (8-ounce) package reduced fat cream cheese

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Toss butternut squash with 2 Tbsp olive oil and spread on rimmed baking sheet. Bake until cooked through (about 15 minutes with frozen butternut squash).
2. In a large saucepan, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil and saute onions and garlic until soft. Add roasted squash, broth, marjoram, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. Bring to a boil.
3. Puree squash and cream cheese in a blendr or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to saucepan and heat through. Do not allow to boil.

Yummy soup