Smoked Sausage and Wild Rice Butternut Squash Soup

My first year working as a Physician Assistant one of my medical assistants invited me to go to her book club one night.  To this day, that was one of the neatest book groups I’ve ever attended.  They had been meeting together for 10 straight years or something like that.  They got together once a month, rotating houses, the person hosting made dinner for everyone and then as they ate the sate around discussing (yes actually critically discussing the book).  They had the cleverest blog called books appetite where they posted the book line up for the year and all the recipes for the meals they enjoyed.  Anyways, the one night I was invited to crash the party the lady hosting made this soup.  She got it from the food network, and it is soooo good.  Today, was kind of a rainy Fall day with a slight chill in the air and this felt perfect for dinner tonight.  It makes a ton (10 servings), I cut it in half tonight and fed my whole family and still have a little left in the fridge.

BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP WITH SMOKED SAUSAGE AND WILD RICE

Ingredients:

• 2 medium butternut squash (about 3-4 lbs), peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes (Tonight I cheated and bought already cubed squash from Costco.  When I have whole butternut squash I usually just cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, brush with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast flat side down until soft and then scoop out the squash into my blender)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• 12 C chicken stock
• 2 1/2 C chipped onions
• 1 C wild rice (tonight I used a brown/wild rice mix because I already had an open bag of that)
• 3/4 lb smoked sausage (such as kielbasa) cut into 1/4 in pieces
• 2 C fresh corn kernels
• 1 1/2 C half and half
• 1 Tbsp fresh chopped parsley.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Season squash with 1 Tbsp olive oil, salt, and pepper.
3. Place on baking sheet and roast for 45-60 mins until tender.  Remove from oven and let cool.
4. Meanwhile, over medium heat in sauce pan bring 4 C chicken stock and 1/2 C chopped onions to a simmer.  Stir in rice and cook until rice is tender and liquid is absorbed (about 1 hours).  Stir with fork occasionally.  Remove rice from pan and cool.
5. Once squash is cool enough to touch, put in blender or food processor with 2 C chicken stock.  Puree until smooth and set aside.
6. In large pan, over medium heat, add remaining 1 Tbsp oil.  When oil is hot, add sausage and brown for 3 minutes.
7. Add remaining onions and corn.  Season with salt and pepper.  Saute for 3 minutes.
8. Add remaining 6 C chicken stock and squash puree.  Bring to boil.  Reduce heat to medium low, cover and simmer 20 minutes.
9. Stir in rice and cook 10 more minutes.
10. Remove from heat, stir in half and half.  Season with salt and pepper.  Stir in parsley.