Build Me Up Butternut

Monday night I was just not feeling it. I had a severe case of the lazys, and watched/listened to not 1, but 2 movies while clearing items that I no longer use from the kitchen cabinets.  Do I really need 4 crockpots?

While I was sorting, I decided to throw a butternut and spaghetti squash in the oven. I thought I would bake them and scoop the flesh out to refrigerate and use another day. Until, I realized it was nearly 6 and I had done absolutely nothing about dinner. (Because I was busy sifting through kitchen stuff while watching/listening to 2 movies)

Thank goodness I always have quart bags of frozen chicken stock on hand, and also as a few other vegetables in the crisper.

I am sorry I did not think to measure anything but this is how I roll most of the time. I began with a cooked medium size butternut squash and 1 quart of frozen chicken stock. I chopped an onion and put it in a soup pot with the frozen broth, turned the heat up to medium and began stirring while listening to the last 20 minutes of movie number 2. We are still getting bell peppers and banana peppers from the garden so I chopped one of each and added it to the soup. There was also a slightly soft tomato on the counter which was, chopped and tossed it in the pot. When the veggies were nice and soft in went coriander powder, cumin, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, dried oregano, salt and pepper. I tasted it and it was still not quite what I wanted so I added about a tablespoon of cholula. Since I had already cooked the squash I took it out of the fridge, mashed it with a potato masher and added it. When everything was hot, I used an immersion blender to smooth it out. There were still a few small chucks of tomato but it was fine for us. I threw in about 1/2 cup of heavy cream, which was a little too much. I think 1/4 would have been a little better and would not have thinned out the soup as much as the 1/2 cup did. 

I served it in our pasta bowls, because we were only having soup with a side of coleslaw and a slice of toast.  To make it look a little prettier I sliced 3 limp scallions, and cut a small banana pepper into rings, put them on the top of the soup with a dollop of sour cream. (I had about 2 seconds to snap the photo before they sunk.) 

It was surprisingly good with enough left over for a lunch for me. I will be adding this to our fall /winter meal rotation.

If you have a squash hanging around you might want to try this and adjust the heat for your personal taste.

p.s. It was still not quite hot enough for me so I stirred a couple of teaspoons of chili crisp into mine. Ummmm, much better!