Roasted Chicken Vegetable Soup

Fall has arrived and I wanted something rich and yummy to make my house smell good. I decided to try to make a new soup. I tried to make something that I don't typically like with ingredients I don't like. I did that in the hopes that if "I" made it that I would. I was wrong.

See, the thing is..I'm not a huge Squash fan. I am not a fan of thicker soups. It's a texture thing for me. So, I did a lot of adding as I went, trying to get that "right" balance. In the end I had to confess that it had the right balance, it was just the squash and texture I didn't like.

BUT, I tentatively brought it to work and everyone liked it and asked for the recipe so I thought I would share.

1-2 lb Butternut Squash, peeled and cut into about 1" pieces (I honestly didn't weigh it but you can see from the photo below what size we're talking about)
16 oz bag of Parsnips, peeled and cut into about 1/4" pieces
2 Onions cut into 1/6s
3 Tomatoes, cut in half
1 bulb of Garlic
3-4 T Fresh Thyme
3 T Olive Oil
2 Cans Broth (I used Chicken)
1 Can Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
2 C Shredded Chicken ~ you could completely leave this out
1 Potato very thinly sliced into bite size pieces
1 C Frozen Corn
1 t Nutmeg
1 C Fat Free 1/2 and 1/2

Heat oven to 425. Mix Squash, Parsnips, Onions, Olive Oil and Thyme. Cut tomatoes in half, drizzle with a little Olive Oil and season with fresh Cracked Pepper. Put tomatoes cut side down on sprayed pan (I used glass lasagna pan) that you will be putting into oven. Remove as much of the paper outside from the garlic, chop off the top of the garlic and drizzle with a little bit of oil. Put in the center of the pan. Pour the vegetables into the pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast for 15 minutes. Give them a stir and roast for another 15-20, until squash is softened.

Remove from oven and let them cool for a bit and pull the skins from the tomatoes. Put 1/2 of the mixture and squeeze the garlic bulbs out of their skin into a food processor or blender and blend until it is pureed. You might need to add a bit of the broth if the vegetables are too thick to blend. Put all the pureed vegetables and broth into a pot. Add diced tomatoes, potatoes, corn, chicken, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste and simmer on low for a half an hour or until potatoes are soft. Add 1/2 and 1/2, heat through and serve.

Here is what Butternut Squash looks like. Clean out the seeds with a spoon and make sure you peel it.

Cube the squash like this

Peel your parsnips and I would cut your pieces a little smaller because they took longer to cook than the squash. Learn from my mistake;)

Pull some fresh Thyme off the branches like this

Cut your tomatoes in half and drizzle with oil and crack some pepper on top.

Toss your vegetables with Olive Oil and add the Thyme

Spray your pan with cooking spray and put your vegetables in. This is ready for the oven

I used my blender to puree. It kind of looks like thick baby food after you hit blend.

Done...very pretty color.