Best Vegan Butternut Squash & Apple Soup with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Via Erica Leibrandton Oct 29, 2013

Halloween is coming and my house smells fantastic!

Sure I love the baby Butterfingers and candy corn, but you have to eat a little actual food on Halloween too–if only to balance out the sugar rush.

Here are two classics to warm your belly and keep your glucose levels from flying through the roof.

Best Vegan Butternut Squash Soup

• 2 butternut squashes, peeled, seeded and chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 4 yellow onions, chopped
• 4 sweet apples, peeled and chopped
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 4 cups apple cider or good apple juice (optional)
• 2 tbl curry powder
• 2 tbl olive oil
• 2 tbl Earth Balance butter substitute (optional. Can replace with two more tbl olive oil)
• salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil and Earth Balance in a big pot. Add onions and a dash of salt, sauté five minutes. Add curry powder, sauté one more minute. Add all liquid and bring to boil. Add squash and apples, bring back up to boil, lower to simmer and cook 10-15 minutes until fork tender. Puree with immersion blender or in small batches in a regular blender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a garnish of peeled and diced apples or a few pumpkin seeds from the following recipe to fancy it up.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

• 3 large pumpkins, seeds removed
• 2 tbl olive oil
• course sea salt to taste

Arrange seeds in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Use two baking sheets if need be. Drizzle on olive oil and massage into seeds, once again making sure they are not stacking on top of each other. Salt generously. Place seeds in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until deep brown, turning over once halfway through. The tricky part is to keep your eye on the seeds for the last five minutes of cooking time. They can be fussy, and go from done to burned in less than a minute. Enjoy as a snack, sprinkled on salads, or as a unique garnish to the soup described above.