This is a great, easy soup that is perfect for Thanksgiving or other family dinners. It’s vegetarian (although it can be adapted to include chicken or meat stock), and it’s great for an appetizer or as part of your holiday meal.

As usual when cooking with butternut squash (or any squash or gourd that has a very hard outer shell), I made the process easier on myself by cutting the giant squash into a few manageable chunks, then I dry-roasted it on my grill until the peel was charred. Let it cool down until you can handle it with your bare (clean) hands, and it’s super-easy to peel the rind off and cut up the sweet squash inside.

Easy Squash and Vegetable Soup

• about 2 lbs of butternut squash, roasted, peeled and chopped
• one container (about 14 oz.) soft tofu, chopped
• one large onion, diced
• 2-3 carrots, diced
• 2-3 small red potatoes, diced
• 3 heads garlic, chopped
• 2 tbsp. dried sage
• 1 tbsp. paprika
• 1 tbsp. ginger
• 1 tbsp. cumin
• 1 quart vegetable stock
• 1 bottle of good beer
• salt and pepper
• crumbly feta cheese or blue cheese, for serving

Feel free to clean out your fridge when picking the vegetables to use … I just used the few items I had on hand, but a few stalks of celery, maybe sweet potato, some fresh fennel, or some fresh leek(s), would be a great addition to this recipe.

I simply added all of the ingredients (no pre-cooking needed except for the butternut squash), and cooked everything together in my slow cooker overnight. Cook it for at least 6 hours on the low setting, but the longer you cook it, the more the flavors will develop. Then puree the entire contents of the pot with your trusty immersion blender, taste the soup, add more spices if necessary, and serve.