Pureed White Bean and Winter Squash Soup

This wholesome soup will give your kitchen a wonderful aroma. White beans are soaked, and then cooked with sautéed onions and garlic. Water is suggested as the broth, and so I added extra bay leaves and herbs to give it sufficient depth of flavor. When the beans are cooking, you then sautée leeks and more garlic, and then diced butternut squash. The whole lot is then combined, and cooked. I found it took a bit more time than suggested for the beans to become falling-apart soft, but that is likely due to my altitude (salt lake city).

I used my stick blender (my normal blender got broken), and the result was a slightly orange smooth soup. It is a beautiful color.

Garlic croutons are suggested as a garnish, and they were a perfect accompaniment. Crunchy and strongly flavored, a perfect foil for the creamy mild soup was great. To make the croutons, I didn't follow the suggested recipe. Instead, we happened to have Costco roasted garlic bread; I buttered it with a butter-garlic-shallot mixture left from a different project yesterday. I broiled these, and then cut into small cubes.

I love butternut squash, and was a bit disappointed that the sweet flavor seemed to disappear in this soup. The soup was good, but if you want to showcase butternut squash, you might be better off with something else.