Soup for meat again

One of the things I love about winter cooking is making soup and when the weather is too warm for it, I feel like my cooking repertoire is limited. I've had sort of the opposite experience of black bean soup with butternut squash soup - I have 2 or 3 recipes that I love. This one probably comes in first place. You only really need a couple of ingredients and it comes together easily. The hardest part is cutting the butternut squash. Of course, you could buy it peeled and pre-sliced, but after reading this, I realized how easy it can be. (Check out Elise's recipe for butternut squash with browned butter - amazing).

Anyone else a fan of fennel? I've put it in stuffing for thanksgiving, batches of roasted vegetables, made fennel ice cream and I really like what it adds to this soup. If you have a recipe to share with fennel, please feel free to email it to me.



Butternut squash and fennel soup (makes 8 cups)

1 large fennel bulb, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 lbs of butternut squash, peeled and cubed
1 medium onion, diced
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
2 T unsalted butter
5 c. water
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, melt the butter and add the fennel, squash, onion, and fennel seeds. Cook for 15 minutes on medium heat with the lid on, stirring it occasionally. Add the water, bring to a boil, and simmer for 20 minutes. Transfer to a blender (or use an immersible hand blender) to blend it until it's smooth. Season with salt and pepper.