Warm Up with a Cozy Roasted Butternut Soup

So, winter is officially here; we've had gray and gloomy skies for days. We finally had snow that didn't melt straight away when it fell. Temps are calling for sweaters, hats, and scarves. It's definitely cozy soup weather.

Cozy Roasted Butternut Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 medium to large butternut, simply cut in half, seeds left in
• 2 large onions, cut in half lengthwise, skins removed and left intact
• 1 whole head of garlic
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 6–8 cups good vegetable stock (depending on the size of the butternut, for a larger butternut, use more stock)
• 2 teaspoon dried thyme
• dash of cayenne
• 2 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• 2 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)
• few grinds of black pepper

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325° F. Wrap the head of garlic in aluminum foil. Assemble butternut, onions, and the foil covered garlic on the baking sheet. Brush the Butternut and the onions with the olive oil. Roast at 325° for about 2 hours or until everything is soft and lightly browned. In the meantime, about 20 minutes before the vegetables are finished, simmer the vegetable stock with the seasonings and spices above over lowest heat.

Once vegetables are fully roasted, remove tray from oven, easily scoop out the butternut seeds, (set aside for toasting if desired). Scoop roasted butternut squash out of its shell with a spoon, roughly chop the roasted onions and cut the top quarter off the roasted garlic and squeeze out all the roasted cloves. Add all the vegetables to the simmering and seasoned vegetable stock. Once heated through, puree completely with an immersion blender (or run batches through your regular blender).

I used a simple cashew cream to brighten up the soup: add 1 cup cashews (soaked for 4–6 hours if you don't have a power blender), 1 cup of water, and 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice. Blend all in blender, add sea salt to taste.