Fall is for eating soup and pumpkin flavored things.

Seriously, sometimes life is just too good to be true. The picture above is the view from the condo as I was cooking tonight. Sometimes I just have to wonder: How old am I again?

Pumpkin flavored things are kind of an obsession of mine. I love everything from pumpkin spice Starbucks lattes to pumpkin pancakes from Clarette's in Walla Walla... there is something about the pumpkin squashy goodness with the spices that is absolutely irresistible. While I absolutely love pumpkin flavored things... I have not quite mastered the art of a pumpkin soup like this one I hope to make soon: Thai Spiced Pumpkin Soup

Until I decide to tackle that one... this is my baby step:

Caramelized Onion Butternut Squash Soup

I started by baking a butternut squash yesterday. I cut it in halves, drizzled with olive oil, nutmeg and a pinch of salt and baked it at 375 for an hour. I let it cool then scooped out the squashy goodness and put it in the fridge.

You'll need:
One butternut squash baked and contents scooped
1/2 a container of vegetable broth- I really like Pacific Natural Foods Organic Vegetable broth but any broth will suffice
2 cups of water
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
1/2 tsp of curry powder
1 tsp of fresh ginger
2 sprigs of thyme
salt and pepper to taste

I started by sauteing half of the onion in my soup pot. I then added the garlic and spices. I added a little bit of broth (.5 cups) to get the flavors stirring for a few minutes before I added my squash. I eventually added my squash and broth. I let that simmer for about 5 minutes until everything was simmering. I then busted out our handy old food processor (a blender works perfectly well here) and put everything in the blender until smooth. I put everything back in the pan and added water to achieve a soup like consistency I was happy with. While the soup was simmering, I caramelized onions by chopping them up finely, adding a little bit of butter in a pan and cooking them on low heat until they turned golden brown like this:



Once the onions are caramelized and your soup has simmered... add the onions to the soup and serve. I decided to garnish with some fresh sage and thyme from my little urban garden outside on our porch.





This soup is fairly mild with a couple subtle flavors that are not too overpowering.