Roasted Butternut Squash Soup - with Jalapeno

Butternut Squash stored in our basement

What goes better with zero degree weather then soup? This recipe is a culmination of recommendations from friends, family and flipping through the pages of cookbooks.

Dann & I fell in love with Butternut Squash Soup several years ago on a trip back to Buffalo when we were still living in NC.  We were in town for the holidays and knowing the indulgent attitude one takes during the holidays our friends Bill & Susan were kind enough to invite us over for a soup and salad dinner. Some form of this soup has graced our winter dinners ever since. 
The first several times I made the soup I peeled the Butternut Squash and boiled it in chicken stock along with potatoes, carrots, onion, and celery and then used our hand blender to emulsify the ingredients. While this is a one step process in the pot I must admit, peeling butternut squash is not my idea of fun - even with the fancy peeler my mom bought special for the task. 

Enter the roasting method - my new path to delicious soup!  Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.  Peel the potatoes, cut the carrots and onions in large chunks and put them on a roasting pan.  Drizzle them with olive oil, salt & pepper.  Cut the squash, remove the seeds and place the chunks of squash upside down on the roasting pan - skin and all!  Set the timer for 45 minutes and walk away. 

When the timer dings remove the pan from the oven and let the vegetables cool for about 10 minutes.  Once cooled, the peel comes right off the squash!  Now quite honestly, you can do this entire part the day before and refrigerate until you are ready to make the soup the next day (or do in batches and freeze).  But typically I go right on to step 2.

Step 2:  Place all of the roasted ingredients in a dutch oven and add enough poultry stock to cover the ingredients by about 1 inch.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and add garlic and if you'd like some heat - add a jalapeno!  Simmer for about 5-10 minutes and then use an immersion blender (or blender) and process until creamy.  This was our first time adding the jalapeno and it was phenomenal! 
The biggest surprise for me with this soup is always how creamy it is without ever adding any cream! 

Special Note:  All of the ingredients used for the soup were from our home garden with the exception of the turkey used in our stock (made from the remnants of our Thanksgiving Turkey compliments of Oink & Gobble farm in the Finger Lake district of NY) and of course the olive oil, salt & pepper.  I find it overwhelming that for a few dollar in seeds we can eat like a king and queen from our little acre.

Below is a full list of ingredients used in this latest batch of Roasted Butternut Squash Soup - play around with it and see what works best for you.  Cooking should never be boring, it should always be an adventure!

1 small Butternut Squash
2 medium sized potatoes
1 large onion
2 carrots
Dash Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper
Stock - enough to cover the veggies (about 6 cups+/-)
Garlic
Jalapeno