Roasted Squash Soup with Sage

I'm not going to lie, sometimes making all of your own food from scratch is a lot of work. Yes it's cheaper, and often more delicious than buying the ready-made stuff, but there are only so many hours in a day right?
Convenience and speed are some of the top reasons why people tend to reach for fast food or heavily processed pre-packaged items. As a busy student, I can relate to this struggle. One strategy I find effective when school work becomes overwhelming is to cook in large batches. This way I have meals ready to grab throughout the week, when I am too busy with assignments to cook. One of my favorite things to have for lunch is soup, which is a perfect thing to make in a big batch. The only down-side is all the chopping and peeling that goes into it.

So whats a hungry nutrition student to do?
Turn on the oven!
With this soup there's no need to peel or chop the squash into pieces, simply slice it in half and roast it in the oven. Then, all you need to do is scoop out the soft flesh and puree it.
It's not just the squash that gets the oven treatment, the garlic and onions can go in there too. The garlic gets all gooey and caramelized. Yumm.

The result: a super luxurious soup, with lots of rich flavour and a velvety texture.

I always think of my mom when making this, because she hates chopping vegetables. It's not because she's lazy, she has osteoarthiritis in her hands, so doing a lot of chopping is quite painful for her. If you suffer from something similar, or are just a busy gal like me, then this is the recipe for you.

serves 5-6

1 medium yellow onion, diced

1 head of garlic

1 large butternut squash

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp chopped fresh sage

3-4 cups of low-sodium chicken broth (or vegetable broth)

salt and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Slice the butternut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the seeds. Place the squash, cut side up, on the baking sheet along with the head of garlic. Drizzle the squash and garlic with 1 tbsp olive oil and season the squash with salt and pepper. Roast on the middle rack of the preheated oven until the squash is very soft, 45-60 minutes.

2. Remove the cooked squash from the oven, and once it is cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large pot over medium heat, then add the chopped onions. Cook, until the onions are soft and translucent, about 5 minutes, then add in the chopped sage and cook for another 2 minutes.

3. Add in the squash that you have scooped out of the skin to the pot. Squeeze the caramelized garlic out of its skin and add it in along with the squash. Stir to combine the ingredients, about 2 minutes. Blend the soup in a food processor or high speed blender in batches, adding chicken stock 1/2 a cup at a time until you reach your desired consistency. If you have an immersion blender now is the time to use it! With an immersion blender you can simply add the stock straight to the pot and blend.