Last winter, while visiting my dad in North Carolina, my daughter had her first taste of Butternut Squash Soup. Since then, she’s been doing two things. The first: waiting patiently until the fall vegetables arrive, and the second: begging me to make it.
But, it wasn’t just a request to make the soup. It had to be made “just like Pop’s” and with “nothing but squash.” Nothing spicy, no green items, and no pepper. I was up for the challenge and knew this would be a great way to get into fall soups. I took the basics of what I knew about making a soup that would work well with my Crock Pot and would only need to be pureed just before serving. It turned out to be one of the easiest recipes ever, I think I even made it in the 15 minutes I had available before heading out to nursery school to pick up my youngest.
In the end, even though I did use more than “just squash,” this soup was perfect for my daughter and not too spicy or chunky.
Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 shallots, diced
4-5 slices of fresh, peeled ginger
salt and pepper to taste
1 small butternut squash peeled and roughly cut into pieces (about 1 1/2″ in size)
2 cups chicken broth
What’s Next:
Saute the shallots, ginger and squash in the olive oil until the shallots are soft. About 5-7 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste while cooking.
Place sauteed vegetables in the slow cooker and add broth.
Cover and cook on low for 6 hours.
In batches, pour soup into the bowl of a food processor and process for about 20-30 seconds, or until well pureed. You’ll need an extra bowl as you move from one batch to the other.
The finished soup will be thick, but you can always add more broth to thin it out.
Notes from my experience:
The ginger flavor is very subtle, which was my goal here. If you are looking for a little more kick, you can always add more.
I decided to save my seeds and toast them. These seeds are smaller and plumper than pumpkin seeds and I discovered I actually like them better. To toast your seeds, just rinse them in cold water, place on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with salt and bake in a 250 degree oven for about 45 minutes.
