Winter Classic - Butternut Squash Soup

This will be the second time that I have made this soup specifically for the blog.  Last time I made it, the photos of it went missing in cyberland, and I also forgot to write down what I was putting into the pot, so I decided to have a do-over.  Frankly I made enough soup to last us the rest of the week, so it was a win-win!

Something important to note regarding the vegetable broth that I used for the soup:

Isn't all vegetable broth vegetarian!?  Apparently not, so if you are a vegetarian and wanting to stay true to that, make sure you look for vegetarian vegetable broth!  I tried to research more about this on the internet but had a hard time finding information regarding it.

Butternut Squash Soup

2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 medium carrots (peeled and coarsely chopped)
4 celery stalks (coarsely chopped)
1 large onion (coarsely chopped)
3 medium butternut squash (mine were just a bit longer than my hand)
3 medium russet potatoes
1 tbsp curry
2 900mL cartons of vegetable broth (like the one pictured above)
1/2 cup cream
1/4 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste

Start by prepping your squash; Halve it, scoop out the seedy guts and roast cut side up at 375F for about 90 minutes - 2 hours.  I like to drizzle a little bit of olive oil over top and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Butternut squash is hearty and tough to deal with when not cooked, if you want the Cherry Pit booth at the Calgary Farmer's Market will "butcher" it up for you and take all the hard work out of this soup.  In which case you have to cut down your roasting time.

In the meantime you can roughly chop up the celery, carrot, onion, and potato.  Saute these ingredients in 2 tbsp of melted butter in your soup pot on medium, add salt and pepper to taste.  Let the onions sweat out for about 10 minutes.  Add 1 tbsp of curry (secret ingredient) and heat for another 10 minutes.  The curry is very subtle but if you're not a curry fan, you can try another spice that you enjoy.  When the squash is all done in the oven, remove the skin and roughly chop it up, and add to the soup pot.  Pour in the vegetable broth until all of the ingredients are covered with the broth.  Bring this to a boil and then simmer with a lid on for about 45 minutes.

(To be honest the longer the better, we went to the dog park and to the computer store, came home and it smelled dreamy.)

If you have an immersion blender, lucky you!  Get blending!  If not, you can blend up the soup in portions in a regular blender.  (Immersion blender is more fun, see below.)

Blend in the 1/2 cup of cream and 1/4 of sour cream.  Let the soup rest a little so everything can come back to a nice hot temperature.  This is a good time to give it a taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Also a great time to chiffon some fresh basil:

 You can stack the leaves one on top of another, and roll up like a cigar.  Make very thin slices and you end up with pretty ribbons of basil.  I added this to my remaining tub of sour cream to garnish the soup with.