Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup

It’s a crisp, sunny day here in Western PA today. Hubby was busy putting away the deck furniture for the winter and I was inside preparing this Instant Pot Butternut Squash. In my 63 years of being on this earth, I have never tasted Butternut Squash Soup. My mom is not a big vegetable person, so we never had it growing up. As much as I like squash, this just never appealed to me. Having said that, last week they had the Butternut Squash on sale for 99 cents a pound so thought I would buy one and give this soup a try. Oh My Goodness, where has this been all my life!! Even my picky eater husband liked it!!

After reading some tips, I popped the squash in the microwave for 1 minute. I read that it makes it easier to peel. Then, I cut the top and bottom off, and sliced the remaining squash in 3-4″ rings. Taking my chef knife, I then cut downward around the ring and cut off all the peel. When I got to the bottom where the seeds were, I scooped those out with a spoon. Then chopped the squash up into chunks.

You will need the following ingredients.

1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into cubes

1 apple, peeled and cubed (I used a golden delish, you could use Granny Smith)

1 onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

4 cloves of crushed garlic (I used minced in the jar, about 3 teaspoons

1/2 tsp salt

pepper to taste (about 1/4 tsp)

1 tsp cinnamon

Sprinkle of cayenne pepper (more if you like cayenne or use paprika)

2 cups vegetable broth (I use the Better Than Bouillon Vegetable )

1/2 cup heavy cream (you can use canned coconut milk)

Put everything except the heavy cream into the Instant Pot and give it a quick stir to mix the vegetables with the stock.

Put lid on, set the seal to close.

Do a manual high pressure for 8 minutes.

After 8 minutes, do a Quick Release (manually release the steam)

Pour in heavy cream

and with an immersion blender, blend until smooth. (you can put into a regular blender in batches, be careful not to overfill your blender as the heat can make the soup explode).