What is your ideal Fall day?
This butternut squash soup is remarkably similar to the Panera version. If you’ve never had Panera’s butternut squash soup (or aren’t even familiar with the Panera food chain), this is a sweet creamy squash soup with warm spices. I like to add something on top of the soup, for texture, like pistachios. Let’s not forget to add bread of any kind to this party.
My perfect Fall day starts with a coffee date with my husband, of course I will have a pumpkin spice latte. Then stroll around a small New England town or go leaf peeping in the country side. We’d end the day with a big bowl of soup (like this butternut squash), cozied up on the couch with lots of blankets, watching The Good Witch, Gilmore Girls, or Harry Potter. It’s the simple small things. 🙂
Butternut Squash Soup Recipe
(Makes about 4 servings)
Ingredients:
- 1 pound butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes (I bought the pre-cut version.)
- 1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons honey, divided per the directions below
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided per the directions below
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon, divided per the directions below
- 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 small onion, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 1 cup apple cider
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon curry powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 7.5 ounces (equivalent to about 1 cup) pumpkin puree
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 1/8 cup brown sugar (* see note below)
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
* This sounds like a little bit of sugar but between that and the honey, this recipe does yield a sweet soup. If you don’t like sweet soups, then I recommend you start with 1 tablespoon of brown sugar or omit it, cook the soup, taste it, and adjust according to your preference.
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or tin foil if you want an easier cleanup.
- Add the butternut squash cubes, chopped carrots, 1 tablespoon honey, melted butter, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon and mix everything together. Arrange the squash and carrots in a single layer and spread them apart as best you can so that they have the best opportunity to roast.
- Place it in the preheated oven and cook for about 25 minutes or until the squash is fork tender.
- When the butternut squash and carrots are almost done baking, add the olive oil to a large pot and heat it up on low/medium heat.
- Add the diced onions to the pot, stir, and cook for about 5 minutes or until they are tender.
- Add the minced garlic and grated ginger to the pot, stir, and cook for about 1 to 2 minutes or until you smell the garlicy goodness.
- Add the roasted butternut squash cubes and carrots, vegetable broth, apple cider, lemon juice, 1/2 tablespoon honey, curry powder, coriander, and nutmeg into the pot, and stir everything together. Increase the heat to high and bring it to a boil. Once the liquid is boiling, reduce the heat to low/medium and cook for 10 minutes.
- Add the pumpkin puree, cream cheese, and brown sugar to the pot and stir everything together. Cook it until most of the cream cheese is mixed in.
- Blend the soup until it’s creamy. I did this in 2 batches using my average sized blender. (You may need to do it in more batches to accommodate a smaller blender.)
- Add the pureed soup to another large pot. (Sorry, for the additional pot that you have to clean but it’s worth it.)
- Add the heavy cream into the pureed soup and mix it in.
Slightly adopted from: kroll’s korner
