Butternut Soup

This a recipe that I changed around a good deal taken from Martha Stewart Everyday Food - which is a great cookbook, it has A TON of recipes and most of them are super quick and simple.  It separates the recipes by season too which I love. 

INGREDIENTS

4 tbsp of butter

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbsp crystallized ginger (or real ginger)

a sprinkling of ground ginger

a sprinkling of cinnamon

valencia orange peal (this comes as a spice McCormick)

2.5 lbs (or 40 oz) of peeled butternut squash cut into squares

4 cups chicken broth (or veggie broth if you want this to be vegetarian)

1/3 cup heavy cream

 

First, chop up the onion (doesn't have to be fine because this is going in the blender) and saute it in 3 tbsp of butter for about 2 minutes - until fragrant and translucent.  Then add chopped up garlic, chopped up crystallized ginger, and butternut squash.  Dust the top layer of the butternut squash with ground ginger, cinnamon, and my secret ingredient valencia orange peel spice, the dusting should cover the top (see picture above) stir occasionally and cook for about 8 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste.  Then add 4 cups of chicken broth and 1/3 cup heavy cream and bring to a boil.  Cook until the squash is soft.  Puree in a blender (I do it in two batches.)  This is HOT so make sure to hold the cover on the blender!  

Sometimes I tinker once this is blended and add a little more cream or broth, or butter, or spices, but with these measurements you should be all set.