Apple Butternut Squash Soup

This soup is the ideal start to serve with your Honey Orange Roast Chicken dinner, while also being just as at home next to your favorite salad or soup. Utilizing seasonal ingredients, the flavors are complex yet familiar and comforting.

Ingredients

With just a few simple, fresh produce, this dish shows that making season's peak produce the star of a dish makes it both budget friendly and easy to shop for.

• Butternut Squash - This winter squash has a mild, nutty, and sweet flavor. Roasting it intensifies its natural sweetness.
• Apples - Enhances the sweetness of the butternut squash while adding another layer of flavor.
• Fennel - This sweet member of the carrot family has delicate flavors of anise. As it roasts its natural sweetness is intensified.
• Garlic - Adds a layer of savory flavor and depth. This sharp and pungent transforms into a sweeter, milder version of itself during the roasting process.
• Olive Oil - Helps roast the vegetables while also adding a layer of richness.
• Salt - Enhances all of the natural flavors of the ingredients.
• Black Pepper - Adds an earthy, mild hint of spice.
• Broth - This helps thin out the soup to a silky, smooth consistency.
• Sage - Woodsy and deeply aromatic, this herb is a classic pairing with butternut squash. It becomes a little nutty when roasted.
• Heavy Cream - A drizzle at the end to garnish adds a little richness to this soup.

How to Make Apple Butternut Squash Soup

Unlike many soup recipes that require a pot simmering on the stove all day, most of the ingredients for this soup are roasted, maximizing their flavors. It's finished off in the blender for that perfect smooth and silky texture.

Time needed: 45 minutes.

This soup is elegant enough for any holiday meal while also being easy enough to add to your weeknight rotation.

1. PrepPreheat your oven to 400 degrees. Cut all of your fruit and vegetables.
2. SeasonArrange your butternut squash, fennel, apples, and garlic on a sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, and sage.
3. RoastLet the vegetables roast for 30 minutes or until they are fork tender.

BlendTransfer the roasted vegetables to a blender. Squeeze the roasted garlic into the blender. Slowly add the broth and blend until you've reached the desired consistency.

ServeDivide your soup into bowls. Garnish with a drizzle of heavy cream, diced apples, and a few fronds of fennel.

Variations

• Dairy Free - Replace the heavy cream in the recipe for Dairy Free heavy cream. In addition you can also skip this garnish. The soup is still delicious.
• Spicy - If you like things a little spicy, season your vegetables with a pinch of cayenne before roasting them.
• Vegetarian - You can use whatever type of broth you like for this recipe. If you use vegetable broth this is an easy and delicious vegetarian dish. You can also swap the heavy cream for a Dairy Free alternative to make this vegan.

Tools

• Sheet Pan - Pick a sheet pan large enough for all of the vegetables to spread out in an even area. This will allow them all to roast instead of some roasting, some steaming.
• Blender - This soup gets its silky smooth textured from being blended. You can either add all of the roasted vegetables directly to a blender or add them to a pot along with the broth and use an immersion blender. Just be careful to splatter the hot liquid.

Storage

This butternut squash soup is a great make ahead and also meal prep dish. Save time on Thanksgiving or Christmas and make this a couple of days in advance. Simply heat it up when you're ready to serve.

To store this roasted butternut squash soup, store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. It will keep for 3-5 days. Heat it up when you're ready to serve and garnish with the heavy cream, diced apples, and fennel fronds.

Top Tip for Apple Butternut Squash Soup

The variety of apples you add to this soup will add either another layer of sweetness, or a little tartness. Apples such as Granny Smith, Pink Lady, and McIntosh will give more of a tart back note. For a sweeter flavor, Fuji, Gala, Ambrosia, and Honeycrisp are all great options.