Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Soup

Fall is finally here! I’ve been waiting! Summer is great and all…but life is so much easier when you don’t have to apply sunblock to your children every single day and then bathe them every single day and clean up sand in shoes, sand in diapers, sand well, everywhere. Fall is beautiful in Minnesota. The trees are turning, the air is crisp, everything smells like apples and cinnamon and pumpkins, and the FOOD…it just gets better and better. Honestly I don’t really know why our slow cookers are kept in storage until the fall and winter…it’s one of my favorite ways to cook and you can literally cook ANYTHING in them, making your life so much easier. Especially if you have little ones running around who LOVE to turn off the oven, reach for the stove flames, etc. My 17 month old snapped off every single one of my stove knob covers. So much for baby proofing…

So I did a little experiment creating one of those fantastic, super quick videos that are plastered all over my Facebook feed. I figured hey, I have an iPhone, I’ll just place it in my cabinet above my counters and voila! Just one thing missing…the recipe 🙂 So here it is! Also, the entire video is below.

Ingredients

• 2 large butternut squash (you can do this with any type of squash you like as well)
• 2 large Honeycrisp apples, peeled, cored and sliced (You can also drop in a cup of unsweetened applesauce at the end and get the same effect)
• 1 large yellow onion, cut into large chunks
• 36-48 ounces of chicken broth (use 48 if you like a thinner consistency of your soup)
• 3/4 cup Lite Coconut Milk (in the can, not the beverage. Hubby came home with unsweetened vanilla coconut milk thinking it was for my coffee 🙂
• Nutmeg
• Salt
• Pepper
• Parmesan Cheese and Chives for garnish

Directions

• Wash the butternut squash (NO NEED TO PEEL!) and cut in half (or quarters depending on how large your slow cooker is) and remove the seeds
• Place the squash, sliced apple and onions in the slow cooker and cover with chicken broth.
• Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8.
• Now go do something fun, because dinner is basically made.
• Butternut squash is done once you can pierce it easily with a fork
• Remove the squash from the slow cooker, and let it cool for awhile or you will absolutely burn your fingers like I almost did.
• Scoop out the squash from the peel and place it back in the slow cooker with the apples, onion and broth.
• Using an immersion blender, blend until smooth.
• Add in the coconut milk, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste. Blend again.
• Garnish with lots of Parmesan, chives and a drizzle of coconut milk. It’s so good that way.

• Tip for those with littles: Reusable pouches and sippy cups work great with this soup!