Warm Up This Fall with some Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

Fall is in the air and with it comes cooler temperatures. It’s the perfect time to make a nice bowl of soup to warm up. Below is a recipe for butternut squash soup that is rich and creamy but without the heavy creams and butter traditionally associated with cream soups. The butternut squash and sage give this soup traditional fall flavors. Vegetable broth keeps it light.

Serving size:	1 bowl
Number of servings:	4
Calories per serving:	136

Ingredients	Calories
8 cups of butternut squash, cubed	504
12 fresh sage leaves	18
4 cups canned vegetable broth	20
1/2 tsp salt	0

Peel, de-seed and cut a large butternut squash into cubes. Place the butternut squash, sage leaves and salt in a large soup pot. Cook on low heat for 10 minutes. Add vegetable broth. Cover soup pot with a lid and cook for 15 more minutes (until butternut squash is cooked through). Turn off the heat and let soup cool completely.

Place 1/2 the butternut squash soup in a blender and puree until soup is thick and smooth. Repeat with the other half of soup mixture. Reheat soup. Serve.

Barbara's Tips

	The butternut squash can be peeled with a regular potato peeler.
	Make sure the soup is cooled to room temperature before placing it in the blender. Hot liquids can explode out of the blender, splattering all over, potentially causing burns. Work in batches to make sure you don’t overfill the blender.
	If soup is too thick to puree in the blender, add some water to thin it out. If you have an immersion blender, you can puree the soup right in the soup pot.

Essential Flavor Ingredients

	Butternut squash is a type of winter squash. It has a sweet, nutty taste similar to that of a pumpkin. It has yellow skin and orange fleshy pulp. When ripe, it turns deep orange, and becomes sweeter and richer. becomes sweeter and richer. While it is technically a fruit, butternut squash is used in many savory dishes we associate with fall.
	Sage is Mediterranean herb with fuzzy, oval, gray-green leaves that are pungent and slightly bitter with a musty mint taste and aroma. Sage is a primary herb in poultry seasoning and is traditionally associated with fall dishes. Fresh sage is less bitter than dried sage, but both forms should be used lightly as they can easily overpower a recipe.