Butternut Squash Soup

Merry Christmas Adam! One of my clients has a family tradition where they celebrate as a family on December 23rd and have a “Christmas Adam” party…because before Eve came Adam. Isn’t that a fun idea? I love hearing other families fun traditions!

This morning my mom and I wrapped presents like elves in Santa’s workshop. After that we spent the rest of the day making final Christmas purchases! It was fun to run all over with her! As our shopping was drawing to a close we started getting hungry and decided some warm soup would be PERFECT for dinner. I requested butternut squash soup, and as we were looking for a squash the man at the store told us to try the butternut squash cubes that are in the frozen section. We were a little weary, but decided to give it a shot. It was a GREAT decision. The meal came together in moments and it was healthy and delicious!

Butternut Squash Soup 
Recipe from Elaine Smith
Prep time (with frozen squash) 20 minutes

Ingredients: 
2 cans chicken stock (16 oz cans)
1 butternut squash cooked and cubed or 2 packages of frozen butternut squash
1 medium onion (pureed in food processor)
2 tsp minced ginger
1/4 cup butter
1/3 cup flour
2 cups fat free half and half
salt and pepper to taste

Cook your butternut squash or thaw frozen butternut squash. Heat up two cans of chicken stock, pureed onion, ginger in a large pot. Add to that your cooked squash. Put this mixture into your blender and puree it, or you can use an immersion blender in the pot. In a separate sauce pan melt 1/4 cup of butter. Add to that 1/3 cup of flour and stir that with a whisk to make your roux. Add two cups of fat free half and half to the roux and heat that through. Whisk it the entire time until it’s warm. You don’t want it to sit or it will burn in the bottom. Add the roux back to the stock pot until mixture is warm. If needed you can add more buttermilk to thicken it. Add salt and pepper to taste.

We served it with a side of Whole wheat bread and some herb dipping sauce.