By Jenny Doty
This soup is a comfort food you do not have to feel guilty about eating. Parenting tip: To get my daughter to begin to like this soup, I introduced it as a dip for crackers instead of a soup. She found it super delicious and has transitioned to eating it as a soup instead. Who wouldn’t want to eat dip straight out of the bowl, right?
Ingredients
1 large or 2 small butternut squash, peeled, cored and chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 cup carrots, chopped
1 large zucchini, chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 large red or yellow pepper (can use 5–6 small peppers), chopped
2 cups of vegetable broth
1 cup heavy cream (optional)
Pepitas/pumpkin seeds, croutons or crackers to garnish (optional)
Directions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees.
- Chop all vegetables to large pieces, approximately an 1” large each.
- Grease two large sheet pans. Spread the butternut squash on one sheet and the rest of the vegetables on the other sheet. This also allows you to pull one sheet pan out of the oven if it is finishing sooner than another.
- Place pans in oven at 400 degrees for approximately 30 minutes or until vegetables start to brown.
- While they are cooking, warm your broth in a large stock pot.
- Remove vegetables from oven, gently spoon a small ladle of broth onto the pan and use a spatula to gently scrap all the vegetables and any stuck on brown bits into the stock pot. The brown bits will help season the soup to give it the roasted flavor.
- Use an immersion blender to carefully blend the warm vegetables and broth until you get your preferred consistency.
- If desired, you can blend in heavy cream to make the soup creamy.
- Top with pumpkin seeds, croutons or crackers.
Published Oct. 14 2020