From Chef AJ. In her words, “I really hate to give any of my recipes preferential treatment but this may be my all-time favorite soup recipe. It’s so easy to make and so delicious. I always make sure that I have all of the ingredients on hand.
Place all ingredients except the non-dairy milk in the Instant Pot electric pressure cooker and cook on high pressure for 6 minutes. Release the pressure and add the non-dairy milk and puree. You can use a handheld immersion blender right in the pot, or carefully transfer to a blender to blend.
To kick up the flavor just a bit, you can use the sauté function on the Instant Pot and dry sauté the onions until browned, adding small amounts of water or vegetable broth if necessary before adding the remaining ingredients.
Peeled butternut squash is in many stores fresh and frozen. Canned or jarred pear halves in their own juice can be used and is well worth keeping on hand for this recipe. Be sure to use ripe pears for the best flavor if using fresh.
Serve with any kind of cooked grain (brown rice, millet, quinoa or wild rice, barley or faro, if not gluten free) and garnish with finely chopped red onion or Pico de Gallo.
If cooking on the stove:
Note: this has a more concentrated flavor when cooked in the Instant Pot per above.
Using a 8 quart pot, dry sauté the onion and garlic per above, add the rest of the ingredients (except milk) with 3 1/2 cups of water, or enough to cover the chopped ingredients. Cook 35-45 minutes, or long enough for the squash to be very tender. Use an immersion blender to blend or carefully transfer to a processor or blender.
