Southwest Squash Soup

It feels like fall. In the best way. This weekend, that meant jeans. And tea. And roasted squash soup. I based it off of this recipe.

Cast of characters: 

-2 butternut squash

-4 cups vegetable broth

-1 large can whole, peeled tomatoes 

-1.5 cups frozen corn

-1 bunch kale, washed and torn into pieces

-Cream cheese (I used approximately 1/3 of an 8 oz. brick of Neufchatel) 

-2 cloves garlic (or in my case, cheater frozen cubes from TJ's) 

-Cumin seeds, cumin, cayenne, Tony's, extra garlic powder 

-Quinoa, to serve it with (if desired) 

 1. Roast the squash. I halved them, scooped the seeds out, and roasted them face down on a cookie sheet for 50 minutes at 350. I read somewhere that you can actually roast them whole, so I may have to try that sometime! Also, if I didn't have a homework-full Sunday where I was home, I would have probably boiled them in the broth for time's sake.
 2. Toast the cumin seed in a bit of olive oil, then scoop roasted squash into pot. Add can of tomatoes with juice and the 4 cups of broth.
3. Bring to boil, then blend together (yay immersion blender). If I had been thinking, I would have taken out about a half cup of the blended material at this point.
4. Add kale, frozen corn, garlic, black beans, and seasonings.
5. Blend together the cream cheese with the removed blended soup. (Again, yay immersion blender).
6. Add cream cheese mixture to soup, mix together.

If you are healthier than me, you could probably do no cream cheese. That was my original plan, but it seemed to be missing something. Also, this made a LOT of soup. So if you aren't obsessed with a desire for leftovers like I am, you could halve this.

Robin approves. Not so much of me taking his picture, but of the soup anyway.  But I had to show off his fall-worthy attire:

And a couple of Gertie shots for good measure:

 Loving some scritches:

Hope you had a lovely fall weekend as well!

P.S. Have you seen the recipes tab at the top? If I ever actually make anything exciting, you could get to it!