I was browsing around on Strawberry Ginger’s blog and stumbled across her recipe for Root Vegetable & Apple Soup.  My first reaction was Yummy!  Then I got thinking about making my own version of a Butternut Squash Soup.

When the weather gets cooler and we wake up in the morning to find frost or ever worse, snow on the ground, we start to think of delicious, warm bowls of soup.  No longer am I satisfied to bring salads or sandwiches for my lunch, I need that warm bowl of soup to fill me up and help me to carry on for the rest of the day.

One of the great things about soup, is that it is kind of like, anything goes.  If it is a vegetable, you can throw it in a stock pot, boil it down, and voilà, you have soup.  There are so many varieties, that you could really make a different soup every day and not have duplication for an entire year.

Here is what I whipped up, you won’t be surprised to see that I topped it with crispy bacon 🙂

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Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 onion diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 leeks, thinly sliced
• 4 carrots, sliced
• 2 parsnips, sliced
• 1 turnip, peeled and diced
• 2 butternut squash, seeded, peeled and cubed
• 2 sprigs thyme
• Salt & Pepper
• ½ tsp chilli powder
• 5 cups chicken  stock
• 4 strips bacon, diced and fried crispy

Directions:

1. Heat butter in large stock pot.  Add onion and cook until softened.  Add in garlic and leeks, cook for another 5 minutes.  Add in carrots, parsnips, turnip and squash.  Season with salt, pepper and chilli powder.  Add in chicken stock and thyme.
2. Bring ingredients to a boil over medium heat, reduce heat and simmer for 45-55 minutes, until vegetables are soft.
3. Once vegetables have cooked, remove soup from heat and remove thyme.
4. Working with an immersion blender, blend soup to desired consistency.
5. Serve topped with crispy bacon.