Happy Wednesday, friends! Did you all have a nice Halloween? We had a couple hundred trick-or-treaters come through. Remember several weeks ago when I was worried I overbought Halloween candy at Costco? Well, I was glad to have it all. We had a little leftover that I was able to send with Aaron for him to take into the office. The tiniest trick-or-treaters started coming through around 5 p.m., and we had tons of kids around 6:30 and 7! If you thought I didn’t dress my dogs up for the occasion, you would be wrong.
My Texy was a glow-in-the dark skeleton – really the cutest guy I’ve ever seen.
And Cali was a cute, little pumpkin.
The pups loved the whole trick-or-treating thing way more than I ever expected. They would run to the door to greet the kids, and they received a ton of pets and had their photos taken a ton last night! Tex and Cali were completely exhausted at the end of the evening.
Now that Halloween is behind us…… are you putting your Christmas decor out yet? I’m not. I’m not trying to be a grinch about it, but I’m not going to have time until after Thanksgiving – and I feel okay about that. I love the Thanksgiving and holiday season, and I can’t wait to enjoy a festive house, but I need a solid chunk of time to get it done all at once.
I’ve got a work event this weekend – and plans with some friends. I also have some items that are in desperate need of getting checked off my to do list. The next weekend, we are out of town for a Baylor game – and the Nutcracker Market. And after that, my family is headed into town to spend Thanksgiving in Houston!
Butternut Squash Soup Recipe
But, enough about me and all of the holiday festivities, why don’t we chat about the reason I’m here today. I want to share my Butternut Squash soup recipe with you. I made it a couple of weeks ago in the crockpot, and it exceeded my expectations. My husband is not a big squash guy, and he even loved it. Best of all? You can make it right in your crockpot in just a couple of hours.
This soup is loaded up with tons of goodness: I’m talking savory vegetables, a little bit of sweetness, and it’s just a perfect fall dish. It also makes a ton, so plan on freezing some to reheat at another time.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’ll need:
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- A dash of cinnamon
- A dash of ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon of paprika
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Red chili pepper flakes (optional if you want to add some spice)
- 1 white onion – diced
- 4 cloves of garlic – minced
- 2 cups of vegetable broth
- 1 apple -diced (I used a Cosmic Crisp apple because it’s what I had)
- 1 medium butternut squash – peeled, seeded and cubed
- 1 can of unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 sprig of fresh sage
Here’s what you’ll do
- Add you olive oil into the bottom of your crockpot, onion, garlic, vegetable broth, carrot, apple, butternut squash, sage, paprika, cinnamon and nutmeg.
- Stir until ingredients are all combined.
- Set you crockpot to coo on high for about three hours. Check in periodically to season with your salt, pepper and red chili pepper flakes (if you are using).
- Keep cooking until the squash is completely tender – or you can smash it with a spoon or fork.
- Remove the sage.
- Stir in your coconut milk
This next step is optional, but recommended. If you have an immersion blender, puree the soup until it’s smooth. If you do not have an immersion blender, I poured the soup into my Ninja Blender – and pureed in the blender. It worked just fine. But, I’ll be adding an immersion blender into my mix soon because it saves a bit of a mess.
Season your soup and serve. I topped mine with some parmesan cheese and some more cracked black pepper.
Make it today
This is the perfect fall dish. And, it really makes two batches: one to enjoy now – and one to freeze and enjoy later. The hardest part of this recipe is all of the chopping, and after that, you let your slow cooker do all the work. Give it a try and let me know what you think!
