Butternut Squash Soup Puree

Ingredients:

• 3-4lb butternut squash
• 2 medium carrots
• 1 granny smith apple
• 1 onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• Vegetable broth to taste (3-4 cups)
• Heavy cream to taste (about 1 cups)
• 1 sprig of fresh sage
• Pinch of nutmeg
• Pinch of cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp of cayenne pepper (or less for less spicy taste)
• 1/4 tsp of ground black pepper
• Olive oil
• Salt to taste
• Raw pepitas seeds (or roasted ones), for garnishing, optional

How to prepare, step-by-step:

1. Prepare ingredients:

   

2. Clean, peel and dice butternut squash (see step-by-step instructions if you need some guidance):

   

3. Peel and core apple, peel carrots, slice all of these into the same size slices as butternut squash, transfer all three into cooking pot:

   

4. Add salt, all spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ground black pepper and cayenne pepper) as well as sage sprig:

   

5. Pour vegetable broth in, just enough to cover vegetables (or more to taste), cover with a lid, bring to slow simmer and cook:

   

6. While vegetables are cooking, warm up a bit of olive oil in skillet, peel and chop onion and fry it over medium low heat until colored (stir from time to time):

   

7. Peel and chop garlic cloves, add them in and fry until fragrant (continue stirring), then remove from the heat:

   

8. Add fried garlic and onions to vegetables and continue cooking over slow simmer:

   

9. While vegetables are cooking, if you plan to garnish soup with pepitas and only have raw ones, roast them on a skillet with no oil, until lightly colored, stir from time to time:

   

10. When squash becomes soft enough to be mashed with a fork, remove pot from the burner, remove sage sprig:

    

11. Puree soup using hand blender (using stand cup blender is an option to, however it is much less convenient one, I would recommend to go for the immersible handheld one if you have such):

    

12. After you are done pureeing vegetables, start mixing heavy cream in, now the amount of cream you use may vary to taste, I recommend to start with one cup and go from there:

    

13. Blend soup until smooth consistency, salt more if you feel like it is needed, add more spices if you feel like it as well, bring to slow simmer again and then soup is ready:

    

14. Pour it to bowls:

    

15. Garnish with roasted pepitas if you feel like it, and serve: