Butternut squash soup

This soup is thick, rich in taste, little sweet and filling without being heavy. A good meal, if you are looking for something light and filling. Butter nut true to it's name is a hard skinned vegetable, however, when it cooks, it gets creamy and soft as butter. You can compare it to pumpkin, although less sweeter.

Perp Time: 15 to 20 minutes

cook time: 20 to 30 mins.

Servings: 6 to 8 approx

Ingredients:

1. Butternut squash - about 3 cups, or 1 entire small squash roughly chopped.

2. Celery - 3 to 4 stalks

3. Potato - 2 medium

4. Carrot - 1/4 cup

5. Onion - 2 small or 1 medium

6. Garlic - 2 to 3 pods.

7. Salt - to taste

8. Ground black pepper - to taste

9. Water/veggie stalk - 4 to 5 cups, approx. please eyeball.

10. oil - 1 tbsp

11. Rosemary dry - 1/2 tsp

12. Basil dry - 1 tsp

 13. Parsley  dry- 2 tsp (use fresh herbs if on hand. you may need little more)

14. Thyme dry - a pinch (optional)

Method:

1.  Heat oil in a pot.

2.  Saute all the dry herbs for a few seconds, add potato and 1/2 tsp of salt and let it sweat.

3. Add onion and garlic to it and saute for few seconds, let the onion get transparent.

4. add carrots and celery, let them sweat it may take 3 minutes.

5. Add butternut squash at this point and let it sweat for a few minutes.

6. Add some salt and water/stalk and let it cook till potatoes and squash gets tender. it may take upto 30 minutes.

7. Blend the cooked soup untill smooth. 

8. Add ground black pepper to it and heat it for 5 more minutes.

Tips:

1. You may add 1/4 cup of half and half/cream/milk to the soup and stir it in when heating after blending.
2. You may add roasted red bell pepper finely chopped to the soup when heating after blending.