How To Make Delicious Butternut Squash Soup

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Easy Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup

Butternut squash soup is a favorite part of cold weather, like cozy slippers, fluffy throws, scented candles, and warm spiced apple cider. It's comfort food at its finest: smooth, creamy, and the most delightful marriage of flavors! Great news! An instant pot makes butternut squash soup easy and quick enough to be a weeknight meal!

Butternut squash has a bowling pin shape and grows on a vine. The wide portion is the blossom end, where the seeds are stored.

The outer skin is yellowish tan, but inside, the flesh is orange in color. It has a sweet, nutty taste. As it ripens, the flesh darkens to a deeper shade of orange and becomes even sweeter. It is a good source of fiber, vitamins C and A, magnesium, and potassium.

How To Make Butternut Squash Soup

The skin of butternut squash is notoriously tough, so you'll need a sturdy cutting board and a sharp knife to cut it into cubes for this soup. You can soften the squash a little by piercing it with a fork or knife tip in several places and cooking it for two minutes or so in the microwave oven, but this step is optional.

Begin by cutting off both ends of one medium-sized butternut squash, then cut the squash in half at about the "waist." It's much easier to peel when cut into two smaller sections. Use a knife or a vegetable peeler to remove the tough skin.

You may find it easier to do with a wide straight vegetable peeler than a swively peeler like you use for potatoes or carrots. Look in the kitchen section of your favorite retailer or find one online.

You'll also need to scoop out the seeds. Butternut squash makes it easy because all the seeds are stored in its little round belly.

Next, cut each quarter in half lengthwise, then lay flat side down and cut into cubes about 1 inch in size. Put the squash into the instant pot along with a diced tart apple like a Granny Smith, a diced carrot, a chopped onion, some peeled garlic, salt, pepper, spices, and sage. By all means, use fresh sage if you have some. Otherwise, dried is just fine.

Now add 2 cups of vegetable broth. My very favorite vegetable broth is made from Knorr Vegetable Flavor Base. I have had trouble finding the cubes in the store recently, but it is available online, and I use this product so much for my soups I buy it in powder form in the restaurant-sized tub. Better Than Bouillon makes a good vegetable base, too.

Load everything into the instant pot and pressure cook on high for eight minutes. Let the pressure drop, add the coconut milk, then use an immersion blender to puree all the yumminess together. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can puree the soup in two batches in a regular blender or food processor. Do be careful, please. The soup will be hot!

If you are not a fan of coconut milk, feel free to substitute heavy cream. Season to taste, adding more salt or spices until it's just right for you! Serve up in a nice big bowl. If you like, add an extra swirl of coconut milk or cream.

Yield: 8 servings

Butternut Squash Soup

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A cozy, tasty soup that says welcome fall! Smooth, creamy, and vegan when made with coconut milk. You can also use heavy cream.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Additional Time 10 minutes

Total Time 33 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 medium (uncooked) butternut squash (about 2 to 3 pounds) 
• 1 Granny Smith apple, cored and diced
• 1 carrot, peeled and sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 1 white onion, diced
• 1 sprig fresh sage, or a pinch of dried sage
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or more to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper, or more to taste
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne, or more to taste
• pinch of ground cinnamon and nutmeg
• 2 cups vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup canned (unsweetened) coconut milk. Can substitute heavy cream.
• optional garnishes: pepitas, extra coconut milk and a sprinkle of smoked paprika (or cayenne pepper)

Instructions

1. Peel and cut the squash into 1-inch cubes.
2. Dice the onion.
3. Peel, core, and dice the apple.
4. Peel and mince the garlic.
5. Peel and slice the carrot.
6. Put all the ingredients in an instant pot along with salt, pepper, spices, and vegetable broth.
7. Cook on high pressure for 8 minutes.
8. Let the pressure release, then add the coconut milk or heavy cream.
9. Puree with an immersion blender or in a regular blender or food processor.
10. Ladle into serving bowls and garnish as desired.

Notes

Please be careful if you use a blender to puree the soup, it will be HOT!

Pepitas make a perfect garnish for butternut squash soup, but garnish away with whatever you want! Fall is soup time, and there are so many wonderful soups to choose from! I love cooking once and eating two or even three times! Most soups get even better when reheated, don't you agree?

Do you have a favorite soup? Here's another favorite soup, Quick And Easy Italian Sausage And White Bean Soup With Spinach And Parmesan. So yummy! Do you eat soup a lot when the weather gets cooler?

If you liked this recipe, you are my people! If you like this recipe, please share it on your social media accounts like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter! It would sure tickle me, and I would be ever so grateful!

I think you might like this yummy Mountain Dew Cake, too! It's quick and easy because it starts with a cake mix and dry instant pudding!

If you haven't already, please look for me on Facebook and Pinterest, where I will share easy, delicious, family-friendly recipes every week!

Love, GB (Betty Streff)

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