Butternut Squash and Pumpkin Soup with Blue Cheese

I made this soup right before going home Thanksgiving break, so I was cleaning out whatever I had in the fridge. A little bit of unused canned pumpkin, some extra blue cheese and milk, and most importantly, I had two baby butternut squashes I needed to use up.

These two were my sad Halloween gourds since I didn’t have time to carve a pumpkin this year (at least I dressed up for Halloween block party so I’m not 100% lame). I drew jack-o-lantern faces on them with sharpie and they’ve been sitting around grinning at me for almost 3 weeks. 

Which means, time for those babies to get chopped up and eaten.

I love the taste of butternut squash, but hate hacking up them because they’re like rocks.

I specifically drove to Trader Joe’s in an attempt to buy frozen pre-chopped squash since they apparently have it. I looked around to no avail, then asked an employee who also scratched his head while looking, saying they usually have it.

Fifteen minutes later while I was waiting in a long line to pay for my groceries (sans pre-chopped butternut squash), that same Trader Joe’s employee (who had moved to the cashier position) waved a bag and hollered out, “Miss, miss! Here’s your pre-chopped butternut squash. Right here!”

I got very excited, thinking I could buy it.

He then said, “This women right here is buying the last one, so you just missed it. I just wanted you to know that.” He scanned the butternut squash bag at the register, and the woman waltzed off with her prize.

Gee, thanks. Well, my jack-o-lantern butternut squash tasted great, so there.

Butternut Squash and Pumpkin Soup with Blue Cheese

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups butternut squash, roasted
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup yellow onion, diced
1 1/2 – 2 cups whole or 2% milk
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons rosemary
6 stalks fresh thyme
3 tablespoons blue cheese
pepper, to taste

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Peel, remove seeds and cut the butternut squash to roughly 1 inch cubes. Place on a pan with olive oil and roast about 30 to 45 minutes or until tender. Remove and let cool.

Combine squash, pumpkin, onion, milk, paprika, and cumin in a blender and puree. Add additional milk and spices to adjusted consistency and taste if necessary.

Pour the soup into a bowl, microwave for 5 min and crumble blue cheese over it. Garnish with thyme sprigs.

You can do this all over the stovetop on medium heat (which is probably more legit), but I’m letting you know what I did. After pureeing in my blender, the soup is still cold, but that’s what the microwave is for!