Fall Recipe: Butternut Squash Soup with Coconut Cream

-Place squash halves, cut sides down, in lined pan, and roast about 45 minutes or until very tender when pierced with a knife. During the last 10 minutes of baking place the apples, whole, on baking sheet.

-Continue baking until the 10 minutes is up. Cool until easy to handle, then, with spoon, scoop squash from skins and place in large bowl.

-Discard skins. Keep the peel on the apples and simply cut into large slices and discard the core.

-Meanwhile, in 5- to 6-quart saucepot, heat oil on medium until hot. Add celery and onion, and cook 10 minutes. Stir in cumin, chipotle chili, ½ teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; cook 30 seconds, stirring.

-Add broth, water, and squash to saucepot; cover and heat to boiling on high. Reduce heat to low, and simmer 10mins. The longer you simmer it, the better it tastes!

-In batches, ladle squash mixture into blender. With center part of blender cover removed to allow steam to escape, blend squash mixture until pureed. Don’t forget to remove the bay leaf!

-Pour soup into large bowl. Return all soup to saucepot and heat through. Garnish each serving with a dollop or swirl of coconut cream, raw or toasted pumpkin seeds and/or fresh chives. Makes 10.5 cups (great for freezing).

Coconut Cream

1 cup coconut meat, soaked in water for 4 hours*
1 cup water
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract or 2 inches of scraped vanilla bean

-Drain and rinse macadamia nuts
-Combine nuts, water, maple syrup and vanilla extract in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy.
-Refrigerate until ready to serve
*I often use raw soaked cashews when coconut is not available.
Makes approx. 2 cups