Butternut Pear Soup

butternut soup with croutons.png

The fall breeze is in the air early this year (though I’m still counting a a few more weeks of beach days here and there—-please summer don’t leave us yet!). Even though today is hot, signs of the coming of fall are solid as the first butternut of the season that arrived on my doorstep today. And I can’t resist—it’s butternut soup time!

This is a slight adaptation from this Simple Butternut Soup Recipe I shared a couple of years ago.

Ingredients:

1 medium-sized butternut squash

1 or 2 pears, chopped

2 cups prepared veggie broth or 2 cups water and one cube veggie bouillon

1 can of coconut milk (13.5 oz)

2 large shallots, sliced or 2/3 cup chopped onion

2 tbs fresh ginger (grated)

salt and pepper to taste

microgreens and/or parsley

lemon

croutons

Instructions:

The Butternut Squash—

You can either cut it up into slices in a hurry (the thinner, the quicker it cooks through) and put in a pan with a little oil, a splash of water and a well-fitting lid to cook about 10 minutes until soft. The downside to this is that you need to scrape the cooked butternut off of each slice afterwards if you want the soup to be smooth.

or

Cut it in half, scoop the seeds out and roast it on a baking sheet at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes until soft. My new discovery—You don’t really need oil to do this (although, the crispiness of a little olive oil on top is delicious). Cover with foil if you want it to soften faster. Overall, this method takes longer but scooping the butternut out is a lot faster than scraping it slice by slice. And you’re free to do other things for the 40 minutes it takes to bake.

The Soup—

In a pot, add the cooked butternut squash (scooped out with no peel), broth or water and veggie bouillon, coconut milk, shallots or onion, grated ginger, salt and pepper. Mash with a potato masher (or use an immersion blender) and stir until smooth.

Top with microgreens and/or parsley, croutons and a squeeze of lemon juice and enjoy!