- Hey, I'm John Kanell. And today on Preppy Kitchen, we're making an easy, delicious
butternut squash soup. So let's get started. First off, there's a
little bit of prep work. We wanna grab a three-pound
butternut squash and I'm going to give
it a slice, carefully, peel it, deseed it, and give it a cube. This is actually easiest if you
just cut it into two pieces. Now we can remove the skin and cube it up. I love the color of this squash. All that beta carotene. I'm cutting these into smaller pieces so that when I simmer it, it
all cooks together faster. If you have big, giant pieces, you'll be waiting a while
for them to soften up. That's a yotta seeds. A lot of the times you can get pre-peeled and cubed butternut
squash at the supermarket, but I love prepping it out myself. Super fresh. All right, all cubed up. A little bit more prep work. We want one medium onion. I grabbed this outta
my garden this morning. I love a fresh onion,
because there are no tears. Look, ah, on my eyes. Nothing's happening. It's a new onion. This soup's all gonna get blended, unless you want it chunky. So the diced size doesn't really matter. Don't be precious about it. I could literally rub this
in my eyeballs and be fine. I'm so happy about this. It makes tending those
onions all season worthwhile. All right. Now I'm gonna add two
tablespoons of olive... Oh, wrong burner. Now I'm adding two
tablespoons of olive oil into a large pot over medium heat. Once that olive oil is dancing in the pan, I can add the onion in. While that heats up,
start mincing some garlic. We want about six cloves of garlic, which means at least eight (laughs). It's math. Is this on? No one told me it wasn't on. Couldn't see. (John sighs) Oh, well. I'm making this soup by special request from
Lachlan and George. They are soup-a-holics and
just love all kinds of soups. It's really adorable. They're like two little old people. When my mom was visiting, we
were making Nana's chicken soup and Nana's vegetable soup with
vegetables from the gardens. They were going out to
pick the vegetables, helping her cut, which was adorable. And they were so proud of the soup that they ate all of it. It was like (growls),
plowed right through it. But they went with me
to a farmer's market, saw butternut squash, and they were like, wait, what is this? We talked about it. Talked about butternut squash soup, and they asked if I
would make it for them. So this is part of their dinner tonight. All I have to do is finish
this recipe before dinnertime. (bright music) So many flavors can go
into this soup, it's crazy. One that I love: apple. This is so great with cubed apple inside. You can add it in with
the butternut squash. It softens up and gives you a wonderful like little bit of acidic
sweetness and depth of flavor. My oil is nice and hot, so right now I'm going toss my onion in. Our onion's gonna cook. You'll be stirring occasionally, and it'll take maybe 10 to 15 minutes for it to start browning
and take on some color. We really wanna take this from being sad old onion to like delicious, depth of
flavor, caramelized onion. So, you know, it's like a
caramelized onion you'd use for a French onion soup, but
it's taking on some color. It's really giving us some flavor and adding a lot to the soup. While that cooks, just
finish mincing your garlic. And then you can do some cleanup. My onions nicely browned. It's time to add your garlic in, and we're gonna stir for
two minutes constantly. Do not let your garlic burn. That would be sad and bitter. Also, reduce heat to medium or medium low, depending on how hot your pot got. Super fragrant. And after two minutes, we're gonna add 1/2 a
teaspoon of cinnamon. That spice is gonna bloom in the hot oil and really release a lot of flavor. And I'm adding 1/8 to 1/4
of a teaspoon of nutmeg. It's just to your taste. Stir that for about a minute. You'll feel like all this amazing spice coming right into your nose. (bright music) You'll smell it. You'll smell a lot of delicious spice. Now it's time to add our squash in. Add and stir, because everything will burn on the bottom if you just leave it under the squash. I'm also adding in 1/2 a teaspoon of salt. We can add more later to taste. And 1/2 a teaspoon of
freshly-cracked black pepper. (John growls) By the way, this is like a delicious,
nice butternut squash soup. You can add so many different flavors and take this in different directions. When my mom makes this at home, she loves to add curry
and chili powder to this to give some heat and more flavor. You can add other spices
that you really enjoy, and just like, just play with it. It's your soup. You can do a lot with it. You can add chicken broth
if you want that flavor. I'm keeping it vegetarian today. And why three to four cups? Three cups will give you
a thicker, creamier soup. Four cups will give you a thinner soup. It's totally up to you and what you enjoy. Now for the fun part, we're gonna let this simmer
away for 30 to 40 minutes or until the butternut
squash is very tender. Then we'll come back. But in the meantime, just
give it an occasional stir every once in a while. We'll be right back. (bright music) My soup's simmered away until the butternut
squash was nice and soft. Now, you can eat it like this if you want. But in my mind, it should
be nice and smooth. This is called a blender (laughs). You could use an immersion
blender for this, but honestly, a regular blender or even a food processor is so much easier and like just less annoying. And if you're like, John,
I love creamy soups, but I want this to be even
more rich and indulgent. What could I do? Well, here's the deal. You can add like maybe 1/4 to 1/2 a cup of heavy cream in here. Ah, amazing. Or if you're vegan or non-dairy, I would just use some coconut milk and it works really well in here. I actually love coconut milk in this soup, regardless of like dietary preferences. But that's because I
love coconut everything. Okay, we're gonna blend this up right now. (blender whirring) I should point out that I let my soup cool
down just a little bit. I find it really annoying
to blend fire hot things. Let's also remove the cap just so pressure doesn't build up in here. The top cap, not the whole thing. (blender whirring) I was like, why is it doing this? It's cause I've been pulsing instead of pressing start. (bright music)
(blender whirring) Now is a perfect moment
to give your soup a taste. Mm! I love this. If it's too thick and luscious, you can add chicken stock,
water, coconut milk, cream. Any of those things is
gonna change the consistency and some of them will make
it even more delicious. I like to garnish my soup
with a little pepper, a dash of cinnamon, and a
sprinkle of fresh thyme. This soup is a quintessential fall treat. It's cozy, warm, comforting,
and really easy to make too. Something I enjoy all autumn long and even at the end of summer when I'm ready for all
those fall feelings. I made it just in time for dinner. I'm about to serve this
to the boys, but... (bright music) Hmm! So delicious. It's comforting, cozy, full
of all those fall flavors, and so easy too. I hope you get a chance
to make this recipe. And if you like this video,
check out my soup playlist. (bright music)
