Keep Warm with Butternut Squash Soup

Nothing says fall to me like warm soup and crusty bread! Especially butternut squash soup. Keeping warm with soup is my go to in the fall and winter. 

I get so cold in particular when I’m not moving around much because I’m snuggled up on the couch with my dogs.

This has certainly been a favorite of mine for years. It’s rare that I like a soup with a lot of chunky ingredients, I would rather it be a smooth soup. Not sure why, maybe because I expect the ingredients to taste different and in a soup it all tastes the same to me *shrug*.

Butternut Squash soup freezes really well. I am pretty much the only soup eater in my house so, when I make a batch of this I know I have to freeze basically half of it right away.

Some tips:

• I use my immersion blender to get this soup really smooth.
• Sometimes, I use frozen butternut squash to make it easier than having to put a butternut squash whole in my instant pot to make the puree, then having to scrape out the flesh and burn myself because I never make it ahead of time to allow it to cool off. I just did this the other day again, I didn’t leave enough time for the squash to cool off!

Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:

• Olive oil cooking spray
• 8 slices bacon diced
• 1/4 cup chopped onion
• 2-3 cloves garlic crushed or minced
• 2 cups chicken stock (might need up to 4 depending on how thin you like your soup)
• 4 cups butternut squash puree
• 4 teaspoons olive oil or 2tsp oil and 2 tsp butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Pepper
• 1/3 cup full fat coconut milk

Instructions:

1. In a large pot or dutch oven, spray cooking oil spray, the saute bacon until crispy. Remove from pot and set aside.
2. Add oil to pot (or oil and butter combo) and saute onions over med-low heat until soft. Add garlic and cook for an additional minute.
3. Add butternut squash puree and 2 cups of stock to pot and, using an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Alternately, you can do this step in the blender. Just be careful!
4. Season soup with salt and pepper to taste, then mix in an additional cup of broth and 1/3 cup of coconut milk. Let soup simmer for ten minutes or longer if you have it. Add more broth to thin out even more, if desired.
5. Serve hot with a garnish of bacon bits and an extra drizzle of coconut milk.

Adapted from: https://confessionsofafitfoodie.com/21-day-fix-butternut-squash-soup-dairy-free-and-gluten-free/