Soup Night! : Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

For the duration of Lent, my family and I have a specific meal assigned for each day of the week.  Tuesday night is soup night.  We allow ourselves a little bit of variety here, rather than only one kind of soup for the whole of Lent.  I'm planning on trying a handful of new soups and thought that I would share each weeks recipe with y'all.

This week we had Butternut Squash & Carrot Soup.

Where I found it: Family Circle Magazine

Prep time: 1 hour

1 large onion, cut in eights

3 cloves garlic, whole

1 butternut squash (2 1/2 lbs), peeled, seeded and cut into 1-inch pieces

1/2 lb carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

2 tbs olive oil

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

• Heat oven to 425*.  Toss vegetables with oil, salt and pepper.  Spread vegetables on a baking sheet and bake at 425* for 30 minutes, turning after 15 minutes.
• Puree vegetables and broth in 2 batches until smooth; transfer to a large pot.  Bring to a simmer.  Stir in brown sugar and nutmeg.  Serve with croutons if desired.

Per serving: 144 calories.  Serves: 6  

(I increased the vegetables and the broth to make enough soup for 9 people)

To go along with the meal, I prepared an Olive Garden Salad Mix (with Olive Garden Salad Dressing) and Olive Garden Breadsticks.   The breadsticks are amazing, by the way.  They really do taste like the ones that you get from Olive Garden!  I was very, very happy with how it all turned out.

I had a few hesitant reactions to the words "butternut squash" and "carrots" prior to dinner time, but this ended up being a meal that everyone actually enjoyed.  I think it's a keeper.