{spicy squash soup with pumpkin seed pesto}

Butternut squash soup is my favorite cold weather comfort food and I am always looking for interesting takes on the usually simple recipe.  We came across this recipe for a spicy butternut squash soup with pumpkin seed pesto in our Epicurious app on our Ipad (highly recommend this app- the shopping list feature is amazing).  The jalapeno and cumin in the squash soup gives it a nice full flavor and a little spicy kick, but my favorite part of this meal was the pumpkin seed pesto.   We were even discussing perhaps adding a handful of pistachios to the pumpkin seed pesto and using it on crostini as an appetizer in the future.   Be aware that this recipe makes A LOT of servings so be prepared to serve this for at least 6 people or freeze a good amount of the soup.

{spicy coconut milk & squash soup}

After coming across Budget Bytes recipe for Spicy Pumpkin & Coconut Milk soup while waiting for our flight in the airport this past Sunday, we both decided this would be an easy and comforting meal to make after a long weekend vacation.  Although we substituted the pumpkin for squash and we added granny smith apples for garnish, we basically followed this recipe.   This soup by far yields 6 servings and we are attempting to freeze the leftovers to see how well that works out.

{yes, I realize the soup resembles a big bowl of cheese}