Mexican Butternut Bisque

Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a soup pot. Add cumin seeds, garlic and chopped onion and saute until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Stir in red bell pepper, carrots, green chilies, and squash. Add 1/2 cup vegetable broth and saute for an additional 5 minutes. Stir in remaining vegetable broth, chili powder, and black pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook for 30-40 minutes, or until squash is soft.

Use an immersion blender to puree soup. As an alternative, you may add batches of soup to a blender and puree, then return each batch to the pot. Just be careful if you do this and make sure to leave plenty of empty space in the blender for each batch (to allow steam to escape and so you don’t have an explosion). Reduce heat to low after pureed.

In a small bowl, combine topping ingredients.

Serve soup garnished with 1 tablespoon of topping.

Nutrition information per 1 1/2 cups: 165 calories, 2 g fat, 10 g protein, 22 g carbohydrates, 6.5 g fiber