Roasted Butternut Squash & Pear Soup

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Place squash, pears and onion on a rimmed cookie/baking sheet. Toss well with 2 tablespoons olive oil, salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Cook in the preheated oven for 50 minutes, tossing once about halfway through the cook time.

While squash mixture is cooking, toast pepitas and fry the sage. Use a small fry pan over medium low heat and cook the pepitas for about 5 minutes, stirring them around regularly. Remove them from the pan and set them aside.

Use the same pan to fry the sage. Add 1 tablespoon oil to the pan over high heat. Once oil is very hot add sage to pan and cook for about 20 seconds, flipping leaves halfway through. Set the sage aside.

When it’s done, remove squash mixture from oven and let it cool for 10 minutes.

Place squash and pear mixture into a blender, add chicken broth and blend until smooth. You can do this in batches if needed.

Add the pureed mixture into a large pan on the stove top over medium heat. Add garlic powder and cook over medium heat until you are ready to serve. Taste to see if more salt, black pepper or cayenne is needed. I added a little more cayenne.

Serve and garnish with toasted pepitas, crumbled gorgonzola and fried sage.