battle of the butternuts

I have recently begun to really enjoy soups. I had stand-offish feelings towards them because most of them have some form of preserved meat...or something that is supposed to resemble meat. Um, sick. Secondly, most soups have a TON of sodium in them and since I consider myself health nut-ish, I avoided them. However, I have been craving warm and comforting food ever since this cold weather blew in. So I've done some poking around and tried out some recipes...sans mystery meat and lots-o-salt. Here are two different butternut squash soup recipes I've tried:

This is from Williams-Sonoma Healthful Cookbook (a great one to have in your kitchen!):
-1 butternut squash, about 1.25 lb
-1 Fuji apples, halved, peeled, cored, and diced (these happen to be my favorite anyway)
-2 shallots, chopped
-2 C vegetable broth
-1/2 T dried oregano
-pinch of ground cayenne pepper
-2 TB thawed, frozen orange juice concentrate
-kosher salt and fresh ground pepper

Peel and dice squash (obviously also removing seeds). In a large dutch oven or or large sauce pan, combine squash, apple, shallots, broth, oregano, and cayenne. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until veggies are very soft, 25-30 minutes. Remove from heat, uncover, and let soup stand for about 15 minutes. Using either an immersion blender or standing blender in batches, blend until smooth and then return to pan. Stir in the orange juice concentrate and 1/4 T salt, season with black pepper.

*This is way easy once you are done dealing with cutting up the squash. If I make this again, I'll probably just buy an orange and squeeze the fresh juice into the soup...the orange/sweet taste was a little too strong for my taste buds.

This is courtesy of Paula Deen:
2 pounds butternut squash, halved, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 1/2 cups diced onion
2 carrots, peeled and diced
3 (13 3/4-ounce) cans chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup light cream or heavy cream
Sour cream, for garnish

In a medium saucepan, combine squash, onion, carrots, broth and salt. Simmer, uncovered, until squash is very tender, about 40 minutes. Puree soup in a blender or food processor with the butter. Whisk cream into soup. Serve in wide, shallow bowls with a dollop of sour cream, if desired.

*I left out the butter and sour cream. I also used veggie stock instead of chicken, but I'm sure its good with either. This soup was also grainier than the first one, and I can't figure out why...maybe the carrots?? It was still really good, just a texture thing.

Both recipes are really good, really easy, and make plenty!!