Mmmmm... Butternut Squash and Apple Soup... Aaaaaaaaaaauuugggghhhh!!

The nights are getting cold, that autumn scent is in the air, and it's time to start making SOUP!  Especially the creamy awesomeness of Butternut Squash and Apple Soup! When I pulled out the recipe i used last year and saw it had a lot of creme in it, I decided to research a little more, and found a couple recipes that I combined and cannibalized to make the bowl of rich delicious goodness you see on here that achieves the same warming smoothness and only adds a touch of real cream as a garnish, if desired!  Erika took some of this to work yesterday and her coworkers now want me to sell it to them!

I started with three smallish squashes

3 medium leeks

4 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped

4 peeled, cored and roughly chopped apples, the tarter the better!

2 teaspoons Toasted Spice Rub (recipe below)

2 32oz cartons of Chicken Stock

I split the squashes, cleaned out the seeds with an Ice Cream Scoop, and seasoned them with fresh ground black pepper, kosher salt and some rosemary...

Put 'em cut side down on a foil lined sheet sprayed with cooking spray...

and baked them for about 30- 40 minutes, till they looked...

like this inside.  While they cooled to a point I could deal with them...

I cut up the leeks.  I peeled the outside layer, cleaned them as best as I could, made lengthwise cuts seen here, then cut very thin slices from the end, stopping when they got green.  These three yielded about 3/4 cup chopped up.

I sauteed the leeks and the garlic in the bottom of the Stock Pot with 2 Tbsp butter, then added the cooked squash (which I scooped out of their skins), and the cut up apples.  After stirring this around for another 5 minutes...

I added the Chicken Stock.  It should be noted that this recipe could very easily go Vegan by switching the Chicken stock to veggie stock and by using Olive Oil instead of butter.  You may need to thicken the soup in that case, since the veggie stock lacks the natural gelatin in Chicken stock.   

(Please ignore the container of sesame seeds in the corner of some of these shots, it has nothing to do with this recipe.)

After this cooks at a low boil for, say, thirty minutes, remove to a large bowl...

and puree in a blender in batches, returning the puree to the pot, and heating back to a low boil before serving.

If you have a strainer, use it when returning the soup to the pot.  

I don't have one, so I didn't.

The finished soup, strained or not is sublimely delicious.  Creamy and smooth, and filled with good stuff!  The complexity of flavors from the spice rub comes through in every spoonful.

I have garnished it here with a sprinkle of nutmeg and a dash of fresh heavy cream.  If I still had any of my Creme Fraiche, that would have worked perfectly, as would a dollop of sour cream, or a handful of candied walnuts!

This is a bowl of squash that even Homer Simpson would drool over!

Toasted Spice Rub (courtesy Foodnetwork.com, Michael Chiarello):

I didn't follow Michael's blend perfectly.  Here is mine.

1/4 cup fennel seeds

1 Tbsp coriander seeds

1 Tbsp black peppercorns 

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1/4 cup chili powder

1 tsp kosher salt

2 Tbsp ground cinnamon

Toast the first three ingredients in a small heavy pan over medium heat.  When brown, and stirring constantly, turn off the heat and stir in the pepper flakes.  Cool on a plate, then put in a blender with the chili powder, salt and cinnamon and blend until evenly ground.