This easy-to-make butternut squash soup with sweet potatoes, apples and warm spices, courtesy of Jenn Segal at Once Upon a Chef, tastes like fall in a bowl. Segal serves it every year for Thanksgiving. The hardest part of making it, she says, is wrestling with the butternut squash — so to make life easy, she goes for precut squash from the produce department. The key is to make sure it’s fresh; Segal says she always grabs a package from the back of the shelf, as those tend to have later expiration dates.
Servings: 6 to 8
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 cups roughly chopped yellow onions
- 2 pounds precut butternut squash
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks (about 1½ pounds before peeling)
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tart yet sweet apple, such as Fuji or Honeycrisp, cored, peeled and cut into ½-inch pieces
- 3 tablespoons honey
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground mace
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Melt the butter over medium heat in a large pot. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add the butternut squash, sweet potatoes, chicken broth, salt and pepper to the pot. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to low; simmer until vegetables are very tender, about 15 minutes. Turn off the heat. Add the diced apple and honey and purée the soup with a handheld immersion blender until very smooth and creamy. (Alternatively, use a standard blender to purée soup in batches, being careful not to fill the jar more than halfway. Leave the hole in the lid open and loosely cover with a dishtowel to allow the heat to escape. Pour the blended soup into a clean pot.)
- Stir in the cinnamon, mace, nutmeg and heavy cream. Bring to a simmer, then taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. To thicken the soup, simmer over low heat until desired consistency is reached.
Note: This soup thickens as it cools. If necessary, add a bit of water to thin it back to desired consistency.
Freezer-friendly instructions: The soup can be frozen for up to 3 months. Defrost the soup in the refrigerator for 12 hours and then reheat it on the stovetop over medium heat until hot. (The soup will thicken up while in the freezer. While reheating, add a bit of water if necessary to thin it to your desired consistency.)
Images courtesy Once Upon a Chef
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- Fall Recipes: Minestrone Soup
- Vegetable Soup with Pesto
- Quick and Hearty Chicken Soup with Shells, Tomatoes and Zucchini
