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Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Spicy Sausage and Fried Sage. This recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash Soup is kicked up with chunks of spicy Italian sausage, fried sage leaves, and creamy cubes of gouda cheese. It’s a warm bowl of goodness that’s as filling as it is delicious.
I need some therapy. So here I am, laying on my blogosphere couch right now and I am about to bare my grocery store addiction with you. I have this problem every time I go to the market. I can’t help myself. It’s really bad.
Ok, here it is…GULP….the grocery store is my crack! *SIGH* Truly, it is. I just can’t help myself from piling things in my cart. Canned goods, pasta, veggies, you name it, I toss it in. It’s like Noah’s Ark in my basket with 2 of everything. Sometimes 2 of things I just won’t use. Like the 2 cans of Dulce la Leche that I bought the other day. I have no plans on making Flan anytime soon. I don’t even like Flan. So why do I now have 2 cans of it in my pantry? Your guess is as good as mine. I probably read some article or blog post and stored the Dulce in my brain somewhere for future reference. So as you can imagine, my fridge is packed and my pantry is busting at the seams and I guess it’s a good thing I dove head first into my food blog or we’d need to buy a bigger house. Phew – I feel better! Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
I guess we better move on before I let something else out of the bag that will make you want to call the authorities and alert them of my need for a straight jacket and/or a personal grocery shopper.
So tonights dinner was a “pull it out of the air” dinner. I’ve had a butternut sitting on the counter for the past few days (yes an impulse buy – but only 1 if you can believe it) and I knew it was like an orange time bomb that was going to explode in green furriness if I didn’t think of something to do with it and quick. What resulted was, dare I say, pretty darn good! It was flavorful, satisfying and delicious. You could omit the sausage if you wanted a vegetarian soup with good success. I have 2 men that are carnivores and to prevent late-night pantry raiding, I add meat.
How to make Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Lop off the top of the butternut squash and then split it lengthwise. Remove the seeds as best as you can. Toss 3 unpeeled cloves of garlic in each cavity. Drizzle with olive oil and flip over on a baking sheet so the cut side is down.
Roast uncovered in a 375 degree oven for 40-60 minutes, or until the flesh is soft when pressed.
Gorgeous! And the house smells great by now too.
When it’s cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh and put in a bowl. Peel the garlic and toss in the same bowl with the butternut goodness.
Mince 2 onions (I used a food processor). Add the onions to a large stock pot with about 3 tbsp of olive oil and saute. Toss in 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh sage and 1 tsp of fresh thyme. Sauté until the onions start to brown a little.
Add the butternut squash flesh.
Pour in 2 quarts of chicken or vegetable stock and give it a stir. Turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for another 25 minutes.
Remove the casings from 5 Hot Italian sausages. Break into small bite-sized pieces and brown in a skillet.
Brown the sausage well. No pink inside!
In the same frying pan that you used for the sausage, add a tablespoon of olive oil and toss in 5 or 6 sage leaves and brown them on both sides. Remove to a paper towel to drain.
Once they cool, they will crumble like crisp bacon.
If you have an immersion blender now’s the time to remember where you have it stored and dust it off. If not, then cool the soup and then use a blender or food processor. *WARNING: blending hot liquids could result in an explosion of your blender or food processor. Cool the soup before attempting to blend.
Add 1/3 cup of half & half for some extra decadence. You could also omit this if you’d prefer it less creamy.
Toss in the sausage morsels. Hopefully you only ate 3 or 4 or 12.
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup with Spicy Sausage and Fried Sage
Ingredients
- 3 pound butternut squash
- 6 cloves garlic - unpeeled
- Olive oil - for coating the squash
- 2 medium onions - minced
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh sage - chopped
- 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
- 2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock
- Salt - to taste
- 1 lb Hot Italian Sausages - casings removed and divided into bite-sized pieces
- 6 Sage leaves - whole, stems removed
- ¾ cup Gouda Cheese - cut into chunks
- Fresh cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Cut the top off of the butternut squash and cut in half lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds and inner membrane as much as possible. Place 3 garlic cloves in each cavity, drizzle with olive oil and flip over so the cut side is down on a baking sheet. Roast for 40-60 minutes or until tender when pressed. Remove and let cool until you are able to handle it.
- Scoop out the flesh and place in a bowl. Peel the roasted garlic and toss in the same bowl.
- Heat 1/4 cup of olive oil in a large stock pot. Add the onions, chopped sage and thyme and cook over medium high heat until the onions start to brown, about 10 minutes.
- Add the squash, garlic and 2 quarts of stock. Bring to a bowl and then turn the heat down to medium low and let simmer for 20-25 minutes.
- In a skillet, brown the sausage. Set aside.
- In the same skillet, add a tablespoon more of olive oil (if the pan is dry) and fry the whole sage leaves turning to brown both sides. Remove to drain on a paper towel.
- Salt the soup to taste and using an immersion blender, blend the soup until smooth. Add the sausage.
- Ladle the soup into bowls and add 6 or 7 chunks of gouda cheese, fresh cracked pepper and a sprinkling of the crispy sage leaves.
More Tasty Soup Recipes
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Recipe By:
Co-Founder at Spiceology | More About Heather…
Heather is a recipe developer and content creator living in Vancouver, Washington. She started Farmgirl Gourmet in 2006, almost 20 years ago, as a way to share recipes with friends and family. Heather is also the co-founder of Spiceology , a unique spice company, which she started in 2013. She shares family friendly recipes for easy everyday meals with a gourmet twist.
I really love this recipe and hope you will too!
This looks sooo good Heather! oh and yes I understand about grocery store crack. It’s mine too. I’m already $200 over budget and January is not even over! I once went to Whole Foods for fun. I had breakfast, shopped half the store, then had lunch, shopped the other half, had some tea and finally left as the sun went down.
Yummy, I’m a huge fan of butternut squash soup. I made a butternut squash lasagna with sage and sausage once….yummy yum in a soup I bet. And I’m rolling on the floor with your grocery store confession…had to read it to my husband and say “here’s my soul sister” I buy so many crazy things, I have a salt fetish, pretty into vinegars and mustards too…when we talk budget I’ll always plead “don’t take my groceries from me?! I’ll die if you do the shopping” Sometimes I imagine living out of the pantry and the freezer for one month, then I quickly correct myself and think really, you could do it for a week. I haven’t, I buy marscapone because its on sale and its a huge tub and then wonder what to do with this huge tub of heartattack? So then I’ll buy ladyfingers for a tiramisu and I always have booze and chocolate and whipping cream, but hmm not tia maria, yum there is sweet tea vodka by the tia maria……..ACK! ITS CRACK I’m hearing you Heather, its just crazy fun and it gets a little out of control. Make some salted caramels with your dolce de leche…yum, gotta get me some
Thank you ladies!!! The best part of this soup was my 12 and 9 year olds GOBBLING it up! I was High 5’ing myself. haha! Julie – I understand your pain! I moved from Seattle to a tiny town with only Safeway. They were good about ordering in my requests. The word is that we’re getting a Trader Joes in the next city in 2011 – HEAVEN! 🙂 Thanks to you all for stopping by!! I appreciate it.
This looks yummy….I am thinking I must make this…we love squash in our family.
Thanks for sharing this cozy winter dish…hugs and love for a wonderful preChristmas week. xooxx
Oh this looks delicious.
And I am right there with you on the grocery store addictions. I am about to move from Houston, Texas back to my hometown in Mississippi. The thing that has me the most stressed is the lack of decent grocery stores. I am going to have to drive 90 minutes to Memphis, Tennessee to the nearest Whole Foods location!
Wow, wonderful recipe, thanks for sharing.
farida
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