This has been a family favorite for years. It’s a beautiful soup course to accompany holiday meals, but also hearty enough to be a main course served with salad and bread any time of the year.

One large butternut squash will yield enough meat, or use a regular sized one and supplement with a small acorn squash. You can either peel the squash and put raw chunks in the pot, or cut it in half and roast it until you can more easily scoop out the meat and then reduce the time in the pot. Of course, this recipe becomes significantly easier if you purchase pre-chunked squash, but the tradeoff is no seeds for garnish.

No matter how you cut it (Ha! Ok sorry.), this is a really wonderful dish. You can easily substitute oil instead of butter for a vegan version – but if that’s not your thing the butter does add richness.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups Butternut Squash, peeled and seeded and cut into half-inch chunks – save the seeds
• 2 cups Onion, diced
• 2 cups Apple, peeled and cored and cut into half-inch chunks
• 4 cups Vegetable Broth
• 4 tbsp Butter
• 1 tbsp Grape Seed Oil (for the seeds)
• 4 tsp Curry Powder
• 1 tsp Salt, plus more to taste
• 1 tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper, plus more to taste

Instructions:

1. In a large stew pot, melt the butter over medium heat and stir in the curry powder, salt and pepper. Then add the onions and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. In the meantime, rinse the squash seeds until clean, pat dry and toss them in grape seed oil plus a little salt and pepper. Roast them in the oven at 300° until golden brown.
3. Add the squash, apples and broth to the curry and onions. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until the squash is tender through. Remove from heat.
4. Use an immersion blender directly into the pot to blend all the ingredients until creamy. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can also use a regular blender or food processor – it’s just messier and takes several batches.
5. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Serve soup garnished with toasted seeds.