Vanilla Butternut Soup

My husband called me during the day to tell me, he was not feeling well.  He called again, on his way home, to tell me that he was feeling even worse and wanted to come home, eat and go to sleep.  What does a wife do when her husband is under the weather?  She makes soup.

The problem, I had, was that I had less than a half an hour to pull this off and I was in the midst of making a quiche for dinner.  While, I chopped and mixed,  I was thinking about what kind of soup, I could put together in a few minutes time.  That is when I spotted a very small butternut squash on the counter.  A light bulb lit up and thoughts raced through my mind.

Step 1 – Microwave squash so that this would be possible.

Step 2 – Chop onions and brown in a pot.

Step 3 – Get out the immersion blender.

Step 4 – Finish the quiche and get it into the oven.

This worked well.  While the squash cooked and the onions browned, I put the quiche together and got it, into the oven.   Now, for the soup…….. Opening the refrigerator usually works for me.  I pulled out vanilla yogurt and apple sauce but something was missing.  Honey – I wanted some honey for my honey.  (Corny huh?) 

We both oohed and ahed over this soup.  It was absolutely delicious and I am not sure if it was the yogurt, apple sauce or honey.  All, I know is that this is by far the best butternut squash soup, I have ever made and I will go further and say, it may be the best soup, I have made.

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Vanilla Butternut Squash

Ingredients

1 small butternut squash, mashed

1 small onion, chopped

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 tablespoon honey

1 cup milk (I used low-fat)

2/3 cup vanilla yogurt

1 cup apple sauce (unsweetened)

cinnamon (optional – I didn’t include it)

Procedure

In microwave, cook butternut squash until it is cooked completely.  It took 10 minutes on my microwave but I am sure, it will vary, with different microwaves.  Of course, you can bake it, in the regular oven, if you prefer.

In 3 quart saucepan, heat olive oil and add chopped onions.  Cook onions on a low flame until translucent.  If you have time, caramelizing them would, most likely, give it an even better flavor.

When onions are cooked, add honey and mix it in.  Keep a very low flame on.

Remove squash from skin.  This small squash had almost no seeds.  Do remove the seeds with a spoon.  Mash squash in a medium-large bowl.  Mix in the remaining ingredients.

Add to pot with onions and heat thoroughly for about 15 minutes.  Use an immersion blender to make soup smooth.  If the soup is too thick, add some more milk and heat a little while longer.

Swirl some yogurt on top of each bowl of soup.

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