Butternut Squash Soup (with Grilled cheese croutons!)

       It's soup season, finally! It's been a pretty warm fall so far in the North East, which is nice, I'm not complaining, but it's hard to eat hot soup in 75 degree weather! Once that first frost hits though, I feel like  curling up with a warm bowl of soup. And what better to go with that soup than grilled cheese? These grilled cheese croutons sound fancy but they're super easy to make. When you top this warm creamy soup with crispy bread with melty cheese it's like childhood in a bowl!!! 

     You can use any type of variety of butternut squash for this recipe, but if you can find Burpee's Butterbush, Oh, you are in for a treat! This smaller tan squash with orange-red flesh is sweet and buttery and makes the most amazing butternut squash soup ever! I've only ever seen it at the farmer's market. But, it still tastes pretty spectacular if you use the regular variety you see at the store. 

    I think the cinnamon sticks just make the flavor of this soup. You could smell it though the whole house! If you don't have any at home just add a tsp of ground cinnamon in at the end. But the whole cinnamon brings it to another level!

     My immersion stick blender is my favorite tool in the kitchen. I once worked at a restaurant where I had to make the soups daily, and the immersion blender I used was huge. It was half my size and I needed two hands to use it, but it was pretty cool! Of course, this was to puree a few gallons of soup at a time, we're good with our small one-handed Kitchenaid Blender. If you are using a food processor or regular blender, let the soup cool a little first and then blend the soup in batches. 

 Butternut squash Soup

Ingrdients

2 tbsp Olive oil

1/4 cup diced yellow onion

3 Garlic cloves

2 lb chopped butternut squash

1/2 lb diced carrot

4 cups chicken stock 

2 Cinnamon sticks

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp ground Cloves

1/2 cup half&half (bring to room temp)

Salt and pepper to taste

Saute onion in olive oil until transparent, add minced garlic and stir for one minute. Add squash, diced carrot, cinnamon sticks, and chicken stock.  Bring to a boil for a minute and then cover and simmer for fifteen to twenty minutes until the squash and carrots are fork tender. Scoop out one cup of the liquid. Puree until smooth using a stick blender or a food processor (in batches). Stir in half&half, nutmeg, and cloves. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Grilled cheese croutons

Ingredients

Your favorite bread

Sliced cheddar

Mayonnaise or butter (for spreading)

Make grilled cheese like you normally would, then cut the sandwiches into one inch squares. Serve as garnish to soup. 

riety