Compliments of my Pillsbury cookbook

this soup is SUPER yummy, however I had NO idea how to prepare a butternut squash so I watched a how to video on You Tube – very helpful.  But, I suggest you have a very good, sharp knife – they are SO hard to cut and if you have a pair of gloves I would recommend using them.  The butternut squash sucked all the moisture out of my skin for like two days…it was gross but the soup was worth it!

Sean thought it was yummy, I thought it was missing something but couldn’t put my finger on it.

Prep time: 25 minute

Start to finish: 8 hours, 25 minutes

8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

8 cups cubed peeled butternut squash (about 3 lb)

2 large apples, peeled and chopped (about 3 cups)

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1 carton (32 oz) chicken broth (4 cups)

1 cup apple juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 cup whipping cream

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1. Spray 4-5 qt. slow cooker with cooking spray.  In cooker, mix all ingredients except whipping cream and parsley.

2. Cover, cook on low heat setting 8 – 10 hours (or as soon as the squash is tender and mushy)

3. Blend soup in cooker with immersion blender*, or blend soup in batches in blender container on low speed and return to cooker.  Stir in whipping cream.  Sprinkle each serving with parsley.

* Immersion blenders are AMAZING, I got a cuisinart one for Christmas and just used it for the first time today and LOVE it.  When I made this soup, I didn’t have an immersion blender and didn’t want to transfer the soup to a blender so I just used my hand mixer and it worked out just fine.  I also used a crock pot bag so it was an easy clean-up!