Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients for 6 portions:

For the sage brown butter:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 6-8 large sage leaves (or a lot of tiny leaves like I used in the video)

For the soup:

• 3 1/2 pound butternut squash
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 chopped onion
• 1 cup sliced carrots
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• sage-infused brown butter
• 2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
• 6 cups chicken broth, plus more if needed
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (or other vinegar)
• cayenne to taste
• creme fraiche and chive to garnish

Directions:

• Heat olive oil in a pan, add chopped onion and carrot. Sweat until onions are transparent
• Transfer onions and carrots to a baking pan (bonus if your sweating pan is also a baking pan!), tuck in the 6 peeled garlic cloves. Slice the squash in half, remove the guts and place, unskinned and inside up, on top of the onions, carrots and garlic. Bake until very tender, 50-60 minutes at 400F.
• Brown unsalted butter in a sauce pan, remove from heat and toss in half a dozen large sage leaves or a handfull of smaller leaves.
• Scoop out the squash into a soup kettle, add the baked vegetables and sage infused butter. If you want it a little sweet, add 2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey and the 6 cups broth. Bring to a boil then simmer for about an hour.
• Use the stick blender to break everything up then run it through a sieve to pull out the fiberous bits.
• Adjust thickness with additional water or stock. Probably won't need to reduce it, but go ahead if you do.
• Add 2T apple cider vinegar, salt to taste and cayenne pepper to taste and you're ready to eat!

Serve with hard rolls or in a sourdough bowl.