BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
Okayyyyyy… so I needed something warm and hearty that was high protein and included tons of veggies because, quite frankly, I have not been eating enough. Those of you who know me know that Trader Joe’s is my go-to for the lazy, single, always hungry life. Spend enough time staring at their shelves and you get all sorts of good ideas. I’m rather proud of this one!
You don’t have to get any of these ingredients from TJ’s, but I did, and that is why it’s so fricken simple! Literally takes me 25 minutes to make.
In one pot, I DUMP:
2 containers of mirepoix (if you like extra work, cut up your own onions, carrots and celery and dump those in)
3 containers of butternut squash pieces (or clean, peel and cut your own, weirdo!)
2 zucchinis. Unfortunately, you have to cut this yourself.
I generously season with salt and pepper, and whatever looks enticing in my spice drawer. Usually ginger, cinnamon, last week it was pumpkin spice, Whatever, Spice it. Mix and cook it all down, then cook it down some more until the veggies start to brown. This soup tastes better when the squash can caramelize a bit.
While this is all happening, cook the meat! I buy 3 pounds of the organic ground chicken or turkey (whichever the masses have left for me by the time I get to the market). Dump those into a large skillet and sprinkle with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder. It there a better way to do this that won’t make your ethnic mother judge you? Maybe. But 25 minutes, folks. 25 minutes.
Brown the meat while browning the veggies.
When veggies are done, now you’re gonna dump on the following on the veggies:
an entire bag of spinach. Big bag? Small bag? I don’t care. It shrivels into nothing so go wild!
2 cups of nonfat cottage cheese (trust me. this is totally optional. it will boost your protein content and add a creaminess to the soup, but will have no effect on the flavor)
1-2 cups of greek yogurt (same as above)
6 cups of chicken bone broth. Bone broth is protein rich, so never use basic chicken broth again. Ok?
Mixy mixy.
Cook it down. Grab your immersion blender, and go to town on until it’s all nice and smooth. If you don’t have am immersion blender, blend in sections in a regular blender with the cold bone broth, then put on the stove and heat it all up.
Once it’s well blended, dump that cooked chicken/turkey or whatever you chose right into that pot.
14 servings. Enjoy, friends.
363 calories
37P
23C
13F
Oh, also, ADHD me went shopping and was like, “What if I take this bag of tikka masala sauce and dump it in, too?” So I did that once, decided it needed two bags, and I was not mad about it. Sorry, Indian friends.