Roasted Squash Soup

This is one of my favourite winter warm-up soups. It's so simple to make and only a few ingredients. One thing I tried that was different this time was using a smoked salt in place of regular sea salt. What a difference! It added such a nice flavour without overpowering the great taste of the roasted squash. You can find flavoured salts at gourmet food stores.
This is a great soup for serving guests as well. It's a bit thicker, which allows you to add a garnish on top without it sinking into the soup.
I like to put sour cream in an icing bag or dispenser (you can use a ziplock bag, fill halfway with sour cream, then cut a 1/8" tip off the bottom corner to use as your icing bag) and write the word 'Soup' in the soup. For kids, a happy face, heart or their name and for the upcoming holidays 'Peace' or 'Noël' is nice too. Toasted pepita seeds or a little grated nutmeg look great sprinkled on top of the soup as well.

Add a name, a heart, a swirl... just have fun with it!
Photography • Mathew McCarthy

Ingredients:
• 1 med-large butternut squash
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tetra pack boxes of chicken stock (Presidents Choice is gluten-free)
• 1 to 2 cups light cream (I like 5%, but 10% works well. 18% is very rich!)
• 1-2 tsp. smoked sea salt (or regular coarse sea salt)

Preheat oven to 425˙F. Cut squash in half. Dig out seeds and discard. Lay halves, cut side up, on baking sheet. Brush with olive oil, making sure no flesh is exposed without it. Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Roast for 1 hour. When done, top should be lovely golden brown. Let sit for an hour to cool or cover and refrigerate overnight.
Scoop squash out from skin and put in large (at least 4 litre pot) stock or soup pot. Add both boxes of chicken stock. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to med-low for about 10 minutes. Turn heat off. With a hand blender, blend squash thoroughly until there are no lumps. If using a blender, do it in small batches with middle of lid removed to let steam escape and to avoid burns. Once soup is well blended, stir in cream and add smoked salt.
Serve immediately.
This soup can be refrigerated for up to 5 days.