Here's the ingredient list:
Modifications I made--
1. It called for a 2lb butternut squash, I prefer this precut stuff instead. I am not fast at food-prep things like cutting squash, so I'll pay a little more for the convenience. I got 2 packages, so I used more like 40 ounces of squash, minus a couple pieces that fell on the floor.
2. Even reduced sodium chicken broth has a fair amount of sodium. I went with vegetable stock instead for lower sodium (75mg/3% of your daily sodium per serving).
3. I added a little extra curry powder, and improvised by adding a little cinnamon, and some extra ginger. (Maybe I needed the extra spice anyway, since I used more squash than called for).
4. I don't own half and half because it would make my morning coffee routine a lot more unhealthy! I found that the soup was already pretty thick before adding any kind of dairy, and threw in a splash of skim milk... I don't know why.
Here's the soup in the pot, not a very interesting picture. But I'm including it anyway.
We've got a lot of it. It was dinner for both of us last night; and we both packed some for lunch today. There's still a decent amount left.
It took a while to make since you have to roast the squash first, then put all the other things in a pot and cook them before it becomes soup. I pre-roasted the squash the night before when I had some extra time so it wouldn't take so long to make last night, when we planned to eat it. Another HUGE time saver was the fact that we have our fabulous immersion blender and did not need to transfer smaller batches of the soup to a blender, then back to the pot. It turned that pot from chunks to soup in about a minute. (Should have taken a before-shot, but it was a little messy).
My verdict on the recipe is that I would make this again! I like the pear taste in the soup.
My husband has previously made a fantastic version of butternut squash soup (Butternut Squash Soup with Sweet and Spicy Pecans) that we found on the Food Network site/from Rachael Ray. He's not a fan of Rachael Ray, but he does love to make this recipe!
After dinner, I ran down to our favorite nearby restaurant that has amazing desserts, and brought back a Reese's Pieces tart for us to split. Again, should have taken a before-picture, but I dug right in. It's a little pastry shell with some fudge and peanut butter at the bottom filled with peanut butter mousse then topped with Reese's Pices and a little chocolate. YUM.
With our dessert, we had coffee, thanks to our new coffee maker. It's a little space-age looking, but it does the job. Our $20 Mr. Coffee one appeared to have crapped out after about 3 years. The interrupter wasn't working well anymore (or at all... actually). And it seemed to leave a lot of water in the basket that never made it through to the pot.
This one has the programming feature too, which our bare-bones old one did not have. So I'll have to try pre-grinding some beans at night and see what it's like waking up to the glorious smell of coffee brewing in the morning.
Another thing I like about this coffee maker is the shape of the spout on the carafe - it's a little elongated, and so far no dripping!
You can not see it in my picture below, but the 'reservoir'? (that's what I'm calling the part where you put the water) can come out of the coffee maker for easy filling at the sink, or to be washed. So far, so good!
i like how curvy it is! the programmable, waking up to the smell of coffe is amazing. we just got rid of our coffee machine and replaced it with a water boiler / french press and sometimes the wait for coffee in the morning is hard. maybe i should invent a programmable french press. lol.
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