Butternut squash, apple, onion, and chai all blended together for a hearty hot soup. A little bit of spice and a little bit of sweet is the best way to warm up on a cold winter day.
WW My Way Smart Points: 2 Green,1 Blue,1 Purple
WW Freestyle Smart Points: 1
Cutting Up The Squash and Veggies
If you can find a large squash, I would highly recommend getting just 1 large squash instead of 2 small/medium ones. They are a bit tricky to peel and cut. You could also buy frozen squash and use that, however I have not tried it with this recipe so cooking times may vary if you so choose to go that route. So to start, dice up your squash and toss it into a large slow cooker.
If you need instructions of help on how to cut up the squash, you can take a look at Apple Cider Butternut Squash for guidance.
I then cut my carrots, apples, and onion up into half dollar sized pieces and added them to the slow cooker was well.
Spicing Things Up
I poured in the veggie stock and gave things a good stir. I then added the garlic and Cayenne and stirred again. Add in some salt and pepper, I did about 1/2 tsp of each to start you can always add more as the flavors develop. I then took my three tea bags and nestled them down so they were covered in the broth.
Note: I recommend taking the string and paper off your tea bags - I had to fish for these before blending as they became detached from the tea bags during cooking.
Then I just covered it up, set the slow cooker to high, and let it do its thing for 6 hours.
Completing the Tasty
After the soup has cooked for 6 hours, I fished out the tea bags and then used an immersion blender to blend the soup into smooth perfection. If you don't have an immersion blender, you can carefully use a normal blender and do the soup in batches.
Once everything is blended together nicely, and you have reached your desired consistency, make any adjustment of salt and pepper.
Stirring in the Coconut Milk
Once you are happy with the flavor, stir (don't blend) in the coconut milk. After the coconut milk is thoroughly incorporated, you are ready to dish it out and serve! For a little extra fun I added pecans to the top. Pumpkin seeds would be absolutely fabulous on top of the soup, I just didn't have any on hand. You can also stir in more coconut milk to individual bowls if desired.
recipe
Adapted from: Gimmesomeoven