Can I vent for a minute?
Ok. 97% of the time I love where I live. What’s not to love? I don’t own a winter jacket, I can go swimming all year round, and I’m a jump, skip, and a hop from the beach, trails, and mountains.
BUT, for me? East coast girl at heart…I MISS FALL. Like REALLY miss fall. And this time of year it’s especially depressing when it’s the first few days of fall and it’s a scorching 98 and 99 degrees for as long as my little weather.com app will show me. Waaaaaah!
And to make it worse, I go online and see all my east coasters and even mid west friends rocking their hoodies, jeans, and sweaters, and cuddling up with a big bowl of chili by the fire. I secretly hate all of you right now. I’m BEYOND jealous.
Ok, I’m done. Sorry.
As I power through this typical Los Angeles fall heat wave, I pretty much do everything in my power to pretend like it’s crisp and cool outside.
#1. Immediately put on my coziest sweats after a shower at 3pm because “it’s gonna be dark in an hour anyway”. When is that happening anyway?
#2. Buy ALL the cans of pumpkins. And bake pumpkin-y things.
#3. Make this soup.
And I’ll tell you what. This soup tastes like fall. It’s warm, sweet, and comforting. All the happy feelings a bowl of soup should bring you on a cool, crisp fall day.
It’s also the easiest soup to make and can be done in 20-30 minutes, start to finish.
It’s rich and creamy, without the cream! Such a trickster I am.
I will beat you weird September summer/fall heatwave. Me and my soup will win.
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cubed (about 3-4 cups)
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- Chicken stock or vegetable stock
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt plus more to taste
- 1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk (or regular milk)
- 1) Heat a large skillet over medium/high heat. Add the olive oil, squash, onion, garlic and salt and saute until lightly browned and the squash is cooked through, about 12-15 minutes. If mixture becomes dry and starts to stick to the pan, pour in a few tablespoons of stock at a time to help cook through.
- 2) Place the cooked squash mixture in a blender and add the almond milk. Blend until very smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Season with more salt to taste. Serve with your favorite toppings, or it's simply delicious alone!
- *When blending hot food make sure you leave a hole for the steam to escape from the blender, otherwise it can explode!
This should be dinner.
chef hoodie saleoff says
I call this MuskSpeak.
Kathryn Grace says
Ran across this recipe on a Two Healthy Kitchens post titled “Food Bloggers’ Best Healthy Cooking Tips and Swaps … with Recipes!.” Lucky me, I have nearly two quarts of roasted, cubed butternut squash in the fridge. I haven’t made almond milk yet, but I think I’ll whip up some coconut milk this afternoon and substitute that. Think it will work? I’m always ready for another bowl of butternut squash soup. So many recipes! So little time.
Congratulations on having your beautiful–and I’m certain–tasty soup featured on THK!
Life is but a Dish says
Thank you! And yes, the coconut milk will work beautifully!
Kathryn Grace says
I can attest to that. We got a dinner and a lunch out of this, and gobbled it up both times. Scrump-dilly-icious! It’s my pick for Recipe of the Day today on YayYay’s Kitchen Facebook page as well as on Twitter and Google+. Thanks for a delicious recipe.