Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

It's starting to feel like fall already, which means hearty warming foods have started coming out of my kitchen. We live close to the beach so we have had a lot of colder overcast mornings. The kind of mornings you want to pull up the covers and stay in bed, especially when your two year old is calling your name at 6:30 in the morning.

I LOVE fall and winter cuisine. Just in the past three days I have made pumpkin cranberry bread, spaghetti squash marinara, chicken soup, chicken and vegetable pot pie, dark chocolate cupcakes, rigatoni with butternut squash sauce (http://yummymummyfood.blogspot.com/2009/09/rigatoni-with-butternut-sauash-sauce.html that my friend Marina insisted everyone make) and roasted butternut squash soup. I wasn't kidding when I said I like to cook when it's cold out! This is an incredibly boring picture I know. I was too tired to get very creative. Next time.

Here is my recipe for:
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
(serves 4)

1/2 butternut squash, seeded, roasted and peeled
3 Tb. butter
1/2 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup carrots, chopped
1 tsp. fresh thyme, chopped
1 tsp. fresh tarragon, chopped
1 box vegetable or chicken broth
1/4 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tb. cream or half and half (optional)

Melt butter in a large soup pot over medium heat. Saute onions 5-7 minutes. Add garlic carrots and herbs and saute 3 minutes more. Add broth and butternut squash and bring to a boil. Simmer for 10-20 minutes until carrots are tender. Add pumpkin pie spice, and blend with an immersion blender or put in a food processor or blender. Add salt and pepper, and cream to taste.