Recipe: Healthy Butternut Squash Soup with Kale and Apple

This is a recipe for comfort food that won't leave you feeling guilty.  Apples and onions give this soup it's flavor, while unsweetened almond milk takes the place of heavy cream. The kale is an added green bonus that adds to the texture and boosts the veggie content. I promise, friends, you won't even miss the cream! Now let's get cooking.

 Healthy Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 large butternut squash (whole)
• 1 large white onion
• 1 red apple 
• 2 cups raw kale (chopped, and remove the kale from it's "rib")
• 3 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 1 1/2 cups almond milk, unsweetened
• Olive oil
• Coarse sea salt and black pepper

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Poke holes in the squash with a fork and roast in a large pan at for 45 minutes on 400.
• In the last 20 minutes of the roasting time, chop onion and apple into small pieces and cook in a stock pot on Low with a tbsp of olive oil, until the onions are translucent and the apples are getting soft, but not mushy.
•  Remove the squash from the oven and slice in half. If this is your first squash-roasting rodeo, be careful not to get a steam burn when you slice the squash skin. It will be hot! If you can, give it a few minutes to cool down and it will be easier to work with.
• Scoop out the seeds with a large spoon and throw them away.
• Take the skin off the squash, and toss the "meat" of the squash into the pan with the onion/apple mixture. The squash will come out of the skin in large chunks -- be sure to use it all!
• Add chicken broth and the chopped kale into the stockpot. 
• Take an immersion blender and stir the mixture until creamy.
• Add a tbsp of sea salt and 1 tsp of black pepper.
• Pour the almond milk in and stir it up again. If you want your soup to be more creamy, add a little more almond milk. You're the boss here.
• Simmer on low for about 10 minutes so all the flavors combine, taste it and season with salt and pepper if needed. Serve and enjoy.