Soup is my favorite food. When it’s hot I go for light, brothy soups. When it turns to fall, I like my soups thick and hearty. This roasted vegetable soup has all the sweet, beautiful fall vegetables blended together into a delectable meal that can be thrown together in an hour (and you use the vegetable scraps to make the stock)! Let’s get into it:

The Recipe:

• A pot with 6-8 cups of water. ALL of the vegetable scraps go in this pot. All of them. Garlic peels, the weird ends of carrots, squash skin, all of it. Don’t throw anything away, throw it in the pot.
• 1 small butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 1 large white or red onion, peeled and cubed
• 1 small sweet potato, peeled and cubed
• 1 turnip, peeled and cubed
• 2 garlic scapes (or 1 extra garlic clove if you can’t find scapes)
• 5-7 cloves garlic
• 4 carrots, cut into cubes
• 1 pink or red apple, cut into cubes
• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• 1T dried thyme
• 1/2t red pepper flakes
• 2T garlic powder
• 2T salt
• 2T freshly cracked black pepper
• A 400°F oven
• A sieve
• An immersion or regular blender

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Start the water out on a boil. As you peel the vegetables, toss the peels/anything you’d throw away into the water. This will become the stock. It will also reduce down, and that’s supposed to happen.

Coat the vegetables (and the apple–I’m just pretending it’s a vegetable) in olive oil and all the spices including salt and pepper. Get them on a sheet tray and into the oven for 40 minutes, stirring them around halfway through.

Keep the vegetable stock pot on medium-low heat the whole time the vegetables are roasting. If you notice the water is at a boil, just turn the heat down a smidge so all your stock doesn’t evaporate.

Once the vegetables are roasted: strain the solids out of the stock and return the stock to the pan. Throw the roasted vegetables in the stock and blend it up! Add more seasoning to taste.

I don’t personally eat this with any garnishes, but parsley is always nice. People sometimes like sour cream or Greek yogurt swirled in. Maybe something crispy on top like baked parmesan cheese would be tasty. Let yourself get funky with it.

You should also feel free to experiment with other vegetables in this. Parsnips are great, and I’m sure other squashes are delicious. I thought about adding beets but didn’t want my soup to turn red…but they’d be so nice and sweet! This is a great fridge raid soup. Enjoy!

Pre-roasted vegetables and vegetable scrap stock boiling away:

Immersion blender for the win: