Cuddle up, its soup season! 

Soup is a great easy meal that can be jam packed with nutrients! If you want to get the best nutrient content use the bone broth recipe, on our previous blog post, for the stock portion in the ingredients.

A sweet and savoury belly warming soup is this Butternut Squash and Apple Soup!

This is a classic from one of my favourite recipe magazines, the LCBO Food and Drink! They suggest you can use pumpkin but I decided to use butternut squash and I am glad I did!

• ¼ cup (50 mL) butter
• 3 cups (750 mL) chopped onion
• 6 cups (1.5 L) chopped butternut squash
• 2 cups (500 mL) peeled and chopped apples
• 1 tsp (5 mL) brown sugar
• Pinch ground cinnamon
• Pinch ground allspice
• Tiny pinch cayenne
• 1 tsp (5 mL) salt
• 5 cups (1.25 L) bone broth stock (recipe on blog) or you can use organic stock or Stock Exchange stock if desired
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Remove from heat, blend until smooth with a hand blender or in a food processor.
In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the pumpkin and apples and cook until softened, another 3 minutes. Add the brown sugar and spices then pour over the stock and simmer for 30 minutes.

I garnished mine with some fresh thyme and oven roasted pecans ( dry roast pecans at 350 for 10 min) and a sprinkled with powdered sage when they were cooling.

It is a winner in my books! 

A new recipe I just tried is from the LCBO 'It's A Wild Thanksgiving' booklet. It is a Kale Chestnut and Wild Mushroom Soup. I did make a few changes, such as I couldn't find chestnuts anywhere so I used a hazel nut and pecans combo. I also didn't' want to just garnish with mushrooms I needed some in the soup! 

Kale Hazel Nut Pecan and Wild Mushroom Soup

• 2 tbsp grass fed butter
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 organic apple (I used Fuji) peeled and chopped
• 1 cup of each hazel nut and pecan chopped
• Sprinkle of fresh thyme 
• Sprinkle of sage (i used powered) 
• 6 cups of bone broth or another stock 
• 4 cups of chopped kale with centre - stem removed 

Melt butter in large pot over medium heat. add onion and cook until lightly golden, 5 min. Add apple, nuts, thyme, sage and stock. Bring to a boil for 10 min. Stir in kale and cook for an additional 4 min.

Using a hand blender or placing cooled soup in blender, puree.

Season with slat and pepper.

Use fried mushrooms as garnish.

Final soup for today... 

Thai Coconut- Peanut Sweet Potato Soup

• Ingredients 

1 tbsp oil
1 cup chopped onion (from 1 medium-large onion)
1 jalapeno, chopped (seeds removed, if less heat is preferred)
1 large clove garlic, minced
3 tbsp Thai red curry paste
1 1/2 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped 
1 can (400 mL/14 oz) coconut milk
3 cups bone broth or organic veg/chicken broth
1/3 cup natural peanut butter, i used crunchy but you can use smooth if desired
3 tbsp minced fresh cilantro, plus additional for garnish
salt, to taste
1/8 tsp cayenne (optional)

• Heat oil in a pot, i use cast iron, over medium heat. 
• Add onion and saute until just softened. Add jalapeno and garlic; saute 1 minute. Stir in curry paste.
• Add chopped sweet potato, coconut milk and bone broth. Cover and cook until sweet potato is soft, approx. 20 minutes. 
• Puree with an immersion blender
• Stir in peanut butter, you can blend again if you used crunchy and would like it to be smoother
• Sprinkle cilantro and a pinch of salt. Stir, and adjust salt to taste. Add cayenne if additional heat is desired.

1. Delicious! reference http://foodess.com/recipes/thai-coconut-peanut-sweet-potato-soup
2. Hope you try some new soups this season! If you have a great recipe to share please send it our way :) Happy cooking !

The Coach House Team 

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