Butternut Squash and Potato Soup with Bacon Bits

This soup is so easy to throw together. You will just need a lined baking sheet, a large pot to put everything in and a blender of sorts.

Preheat your oven to 450F.

Cut your Butternut Squash in half and rub 1 tablespoon of Olive oil over the cut part of each half. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put the cut squash cut side down on the baking sheet. Roast in the oven for 40 minutes until the squash is cooked through. My trick for being able to tell when that is is to press a finger against the skin side. If you are able to press in, it means it is ready.

In the meantime, peel and chop your potatoes, slice your celery into chunks, dice your onion and garlic. Throw everything into the large cooking pot. Once your squash is ready scoop out the inside flesh and add it to the rest of your vegetables. Add in the vegetable stock, bay leaf and oregano leaves (remove the leaves from the stem before adding).

Cook over medium high heat until potatoes are cooked through (about 20 minutes or until you can easily cut through them). If you feel the liquid has diminished too much you can always add more water. There should be at least as much liquid as veggies.

When the potatoes are cooked through remove the pot from the heat and let cool.

In the meantime, cook your bacon strips. Try and get them to be as crunchy as possible.

Once cooked, crumble into small chunks.

When the veggies and stock are cool enough to handle safely, remove the bay leaves and add your ingredients to the blender (or use a handheld blender to blend everything down). Blend until you have a smooth velvety soup.

Transfer the soup back to the pot if you used a standing blender and warm and season with salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, drizzle some heavy cream and sprinkle with bacon bits.