Butternut Squash Soup

As a continuation of my March break cooking, I decided to make one of my favourite meals, butternut squash soup!  This is a recipe I have made many times before, but have never made in a Crock-Pot. For this recipe I based it off of a recipe I found on the website running on real food but also added some of my own ingredients to it as well. The recipe was fairly simple, and the soup is actually really easy to make.

1 butternut squash, peeled and cut into chunks, approx. 8 cups once cubed (if it's more or less than that no problem, adjust amount of liquid so squash is just covered)

½ white onion, roughly chopped

5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped ( I only used two, as five seemed like a lot)

5 cups vegetable stock (or just enough to cover the squash)

salt and pepper, to taste

I also added:

* Cayenne pepper ( just a pinch)

* 1/2 a cup of whipping cream

* 2 apples (peeled)

One thing that the recipe does not mention is how hard it is to cut through a butternut squash.  Since I have made this dish before I have found that microwaving the squash really helps with this.  Poke the butternut squash with a fork all over before putting it in the microwave for about three minutes. Let it cool and then the skin is much easier to peel off, and the squash is much easier to cut through. This actually ends up saving you a lot of time.

Once my squash was peeled, I used a spoon to get rid of all of the seeds inside and then cut it into cubes. From there I cut up the onion and garlic and added the rest of the ingredients to the Crock-Pot.

I let the ingredients cook for about 2 hours on a low temperature. Once the butternut squash  was tender and started to fall apart then I used a hand blender to mix the ingredients together. As an addition I decided to break my rule a little and add half a cup of whipping cream in order to make the soup a little more rich. As well I added a few shakes of cayenne pepper in order to give the soup a little more flavor.

The soup ended up being delicious!  Although, it was a little spicy for me ( went a little too strong on the cayenne pepper).  My mom also loved it.  This was one of my favourite dishes to make as it is so easy, and butternut squash soup is the perfect comfort food!