Butternut Squash Soup

I love soup pretty much all the time.

Perhaps it is because it is always cold here,

but I really do like to think it is because it

just makes me feel warm and satisfied.

My friend brought this soup over to my house one day...

and I LOVED it.

I have since modified it and

you can too based on what is already in your kitchen.

And I will apologize in advance for the photos in this post.

I had no idea they were so bad...but the soup is G-O-N-E!

Ingredients

1 Butternut Squash

1 Red Pepper

1-2 Pears

1 Red Onion

1-2 Cups of Vegetable Stock

Olive oil (1-2 T)

2-3 Cloves garlic (or even more)

Sea Salt and Ground Pepper to taste
EDIT: 1 can of stewed tomatoes or 3-4 tomatoes sliced and oven roasted

NOTE 1: If you do not like too much red pepper taste, try adding only 1/2 the pepper. NOTE 2: The pear adds sweetness, so you may want to play with that quantity as well.

NOTE 3: You can also add a leek.

EDIT - NOTE 4: Roasted tomatoes or a can of stewed tomatoes also compliment the flavors nicely, but are not necessary

COOK IT!

• Preheat oven to 400F.
• Cut squash in half and place it in a 9 x 13 glass dish filled with about 1"of water.
• Place in oven and bake for approximately 1 hour. A fork should easily go into the squash when it is done. If not done, check back every 10 minutes or so for doneness.

• Cut pear (and peel it), cut red pepper and onion into medium size pieces. EDUT and tomatoes into slices
• Crush 2-3 cloves of garlic.
• Place pear, pepper, onion, tomatoes (stewed tomatoes need not be roasted, but can be throw in here too) and garlic into another 9 x 13 glass dish. Drizzle with olive oil; sprinkle with salt and ground black pepper (to your liking).
• Place in oven and cook for approximately 30 minutes. Check for tenderness, add time in increments of 10 minutes until done to your liking.

• Once squash and veggie/fruit mixture is finished, let cool a bit.
• Remove seed from the squash.
• Scoop out the meat of the squash and place in a food processor.
• Process squash, adding vegetable stock (1/2 cup at a time)  and/or water  to make the squash smoother.
• Begin adding the veggie/fruit mixture and more veggie stock until the smoothness is desired. NOTE: Add stewed (canned) tomatoes during this step as well.I like a thicker, chunkier soup, so I used about 1 cup of stock. Using more stock just makes is smoother/thinner.

Guess what...?

You are done and ready to enjoy!

I like my soup as is with a crusty piece of sourdough bread. 

You can add goat cheese, feta cheese or sour cream...

or whatever you want!

How do you like your soup?