Butternut squash soup

I don’t always love butternut squash.  But this year, for some reason, I’m constantly craving it.  That and sweet potatoes.  Not sure why.  So I set out to find a butternut squash soup recipe that sounded good.  There are a lot.  But I didn’t want a lot of cream and I wanted to add either apples or pears, so that helped me narrow it a bit.  I finally settled on this recipe.  I ended up manipulating it a bit, so I’ve posted the recipe below.  I used a couple of cans of butternut squash (rather than the Williams Sonoma jar) and I used pears instead of apples.  I also left out all the spices by accident because I was so focused on the other parts of the soup.  Oops. :) I really loved it though - it’s very flavorful and creamy.  I love the addition of the pears but I think my pears needed to be a bit riper, I would’ve liked it to be slightly sweeter.  And I think I would play with spices next time.  In the photo below, I actually did a drizzle of maple syrup and that was fabulous!!  I would also like to try it using fresh, roasted squash rather than the can.

Butternut Squash and Pear Soup
Yield 6-8
Ingredients:
2 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, thinly sliced
2 cans butternut squash puree
2 pears, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
2 tbsp chicken bouillon
3 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions:
In a Dutch oven or stockpot over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the onion and cook until soft but not browned, 12 to 15 minutes. Add the butternut squash puree, apple, broth, water, bouillon and salt and stir to combine. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low. Partially cover the pot and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the heavy cream. Using an immersion blender or food processor and puree the soup.

Based on 6 servings