Winter Squash Soup With Gruyere Croutons

Soup

• 1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick) butter
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 4 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 3 14 1/2-ounce cans low-salt chicken broth
• 4 cups 1-inch pieces peeled butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 4 cups 1-inch pieces peeled acorn squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
• 1 1/4 teaspoons minced fresh sage
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 2 teaspoons sugar

Croutons

• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
• 24 1/4-inch-thick baguette bread slices
• 1 cup grated Gruyère cheese
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
• 1 teaspoon minced fresh sage

For soup:
Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté until tender, about 10 minutes. Add broth, all squash and herbs; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until squash is very tender, about 20 minutes.

Working in batches, puree soup in blender. Return soup to same pot. Stir in cream and sugar; bring to simmer. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Chill. Rewarm over medium heat before serving.)

For croutons:
Preheat broiler. Butter 1 side of each bread slice. Arrange bread, buttered side up, on baking sheet. Broil until golden, about 1 minute. Turn over. Sprinkle cheese, then thyme and sage over. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Broil until cheese melts, about 1 minute. Ladle soup into bowls. Top each with croutons and serve.

RECIPE BY: Epicurious

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Like the previous soup, rather than trying to peel and cube the squash (which would be extremely difficult for the acorn squash due to its irregular shape) I halved and baked them on a greased cookie sheet (if you don't grease it WILL stick!) at 400 degrees for 40 minutes. This means you do NOT have wait for the soup to simmer to soften the squash; that part's been done and you can move straight on to blending. Also, with both squash, you'll pretty much use up all of it and, while I measured (or tried to), it's not necessary. Just scrape out as much squash as you like attempting to get most of it (or at least 3/4) and you're set.

I also didn't have fresh thyme or sage and used dried. You can use a little less when it's dried as well, but should feel free to play around with it and simply add to taste as you would salt and pepper.

Also to be noted, you do not need NEARLY as much broth as the recipe insinuates. 32 oz (or about 2 cans) does the job nicely. Any more and my pot would have overflowed!

I ran out of sage for the croutons but with just the thyme and gruyere, they were positively divine!

Squash tends to be slightly sweet on its own so I also omitted the sugar. If you're curious or wary, omit the sugar as I did, but sprinkle a little on in a bowl-to-bowl basis.

Finally, if you're a soup fan an immersion blender is a must! It eliminates the need to transfer batches of soup to the blender and just saves loads of time.

Ultimately? This is a new favorite soup that's earned a spot on my cookbook shelf! It's hearty, smooth and oh-so-good on a cold autumn night.