As odd as this sounds, this is the first time I’ve ever cooked with Butternut Squash in my life. Sure, I’ve eaten it plenty of times…and I’ve cooked with tons of other squashes in the past…but never Butternut. I don’t know why that is…but when my wife came home from the market with one, I knew that I was about to turn over a new leaf.
With my primary ingredient chosen for me, I had to decide what to make. The decision to make soup in a crockpot frankly came from a completely non-food related factor…we were trying to hold out until November to turn our heat on! So, our house was…shall we say…chilly! Thus, we thought that making something liquidy in a crockpot that would warm the air around it for hours might be a good idea…plus, the soup would warm our cores as we ate.
When I’ve had Butternut Squash Soup at restaurants, it’s always been creamy, so I wanted to try something a little different…and instead of cream, used vegetable stock as my primary liquid component. Then, to build out flavours, I added some caramelized onion, roasted garlic, and a little brown sugar. In the end, we had a slightly sweet savory soup that paired very nicely with a piece of toast!
Time: 5-8 Hours (Most of which is spent letting your slow cooker do its thing)
Ingredients:
- A Butternut Squash
- An Onion
- A head of Garlic
- 3 Cups of Vegetable Stock
- 1/8 Cup Brown Sugar
Method:
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Then, cut the top off your garlic bulb to expose the top of your garlic cloves. Wrap in foil, and place in the oven for about 30-35 minutes.
- Dice your onion. Then, heat a little butter in a pan, and add your onion. Cook for 10-15 minutes stirring occasionally to caramelize.
- As your onions and garlic cook, cut the ends off your squash, and then cut it in half longways.
- Scoop out the seeds with a spoon, and discard.
- Slice your squash into cross-sections, and then cut the skin off.
- Cube your squash, and add it to your crockpot.
- Pour in your vegetable stock.
- Add in your caramelized onion, brown sugar, and roasted garlic (after removing the cloves from the garlic skin, of course).
- Set the crock pot to low, and let everything cook for between 4.5 and 7.5 hours (the longer the better).
- Puree with an immersion blender. If you haven’t got one, you can transfer your soup ingredients to a food processor or blender to puree.
- Plate, devour, and enjoy!
