Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

The keys to this super-easy recipe are cooking spray (in the amounts used, it only adds a negligible amount of fat) and fat-free vegetable or chicken broth or stock, from a box, from the grocery store. While I do love homemade stocks, to assure that meat stocks are fat-free, ya gotta go with the box!

To puree this soup you can either use a traditional blender or an immersion blender, which my mother affectionately calls "the outboard motor". Both will work just fine, so whichever you've got will do!


Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

• 2 Large butternut squash, sliced from head-to-toe (lengthwise) and seeded
• 3 Granny Smith Apples (or other tart cooking apple), peeled, quartered, and seeded
• Fat-free vegetable or chicken stock or broth (whichever your taste prefers)
• 2 cloves garlic, skin removed
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 pinch yellow curry powder (optional)
• 1 pinch nutmeg (optional)
  
• Nonstick cooking spray, such as Pam
  

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a baking sheet with nonstick spray.
2. Place squash, cut-side up, on baking sheet, along with apples. Place garlic cloves in hollows of squash (from where you removed the seeds). This will help the garlic to roast evenly without burning.
3. Spray squash, apples, and garlic with nonstick spray. Lightly coat with salt and pepper.
   
4. Roast in oven until squash is fork-tender; anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the thickness of your squash. Remove and let cool until squash can be handled.
5. Using a large spoon, scoop the cooked squash out of its skin and place it in your blender (or, if using an immersion blender, in a pot), along with the apples and garlic. Make sure you leave all the skin out of the blender, as the skin does not taste good.
6. Add approximately 1 cup of broth or stock to your squash and begin pureeing. Add more as necessary, until a smooth, thick, and creamy soup has formed. Reheat on stove-top over low heat, stirring frequently. Add optional spices now.
7. Once hot, adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve with crusty bread.