Butternut Squash Soup

To me, this soup says Autumn is here. On a crisp, chilly Fall day, coming home and curling up with a bowl of this soup is as comforting as it gets. Once you get a mouthful of how rich, creamy, and velvety smooth the texture is, you’re never going to believe that a cup is only 155 calories, or only 4 Weight Watchers Points+. This is also a great soup to serve company. I recall my mom serving both this and White Chicken Chili along with crusty bread and a big vinaigrette-tossed salad with dried cranberries, nuts and blue cheese to guests for a “soup and salad” dinner and it was a huge hit.

I’ve heard that some people have issues peeling/cutting butternut squash. I used a large chef’s knife and a serrated vegetable peeler and I had no trouble whatsoever. It takes some elbow grease to cut through the squash, but I managed without too much effort. To make it easier, I hear you can poke a few holes and microwave the squash for 2-3 minutes before you cut and peel it to soften it up a bit. If you need more help, here’s a great tutorial!

Butternut Squash Soup
Source: my lovely and amazing Mom

Ingredients:
4 T light butter
6 T chopped onion
6 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
3 cups vegetable broth
½ t dried marjoram
¼ t black pepper
1/8 t cayenne pepper
4 oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese
Pumpkin pie spice, sprinkled to taste

Optional topping: I tossed a few croutons on top of my soup just to give a little layering for the photos. The soup delicious with or without them! They are not included in the nutrition calculations at the bottom, but if you’d like to add them in you can just use the nutrition information on the package.

Directions:
1.    In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat and add the onions. Saute onions for a few minutes until tender. Add the squash, broth, marjoram, pepper and cayenne and stir together. Cover the pot and bring the mixture to a boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer and simmer covered for 20 minutes or until the squash is tender.
2.    When soup is done cooking, add the cream cheese and puree the soup completely, either by using an immersion blender directly in the pot or by pouring the soup in batches into a normal blender, until smooth. Sprinkle a bit of Pumpkin Pie Spice on each serving.

Yields 6 (1 cup) servings. WW P+: 4 per serving (P+ calculated using the recipe builder on weightwatchers.com)
Nutrition Information per serving from myfitnesspal.com: 155 calories, 20 g carbs, 8 g fat, 3 g protein, 3 g fiber