Gingery Butternut Soup

The past few days have been dark, cold and wet. The newspaper calls this weather cranky, but I call it soup weather. These are the perfect days to curl up with a nice hot bowl of soup so after an afternoon of walking around in the bitter weather I decided to make a pot of soup. I had a butternut squash and my goal was to make the soup using only the ingredients that we had on hand since I didn't want to go out to the grocery store. This was my first time cooking butternut squash so I was really surprised at how well this came out. I will definitely be making this soup again.

Gingery Butternut Soup

1 medium butternut squash
2 medium onions, chopped
3 cups vegetable broth
1/2-3/4" ginger root, grated*
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. ground cardamon
salt and pepper to taste
oil for sauteing
1 Tbsp fresh chives (optional)
soy yogurt or vegan sour cream

Peel and cube the butternut squash. In a stockpot over medium heat, saute the onions in oil until they start to turn translucent. Add the squash, ginger, garlic, and cardamon to the pot and continue sauteing for 3-4 minutes. Add the vegetable broth and lower the heat to medium low. Let soup simmer for 20 minutes. Using an immersion blender, puree the soup to a nice smooth consistency and add the salt and pepper according to your taste. Serve with a dollop of soy yogurt or vegan sour cream and a sprinkling of fresh chives. Makes 6-8 servings.

*I made my soup very gingery, but I realize that it might be too much for some people so use less ginger if you aren't a huge fan.