Have you ever read a book that made you hungry with all the talk of cooking and eating? Most of the books that do that for me are centered around food. In Irene Hannon‘s latest romantic suspense novel, Thin Ice (review HERE), the twisting turning plot and the chemistry between the characters take center stage, but . . . they sure do eat a lot, sharing meals as they meet concerning an FBI investigation. One of their favorite places to strategize is Panera Bread, one of my favorite places to lunch. I started craving the Autumn Squash Soup while reading Thin Ice and have yet to find satisfaction. The closest Panera is in a neighboring town and requires planning to eat there. So I found a recipe adapted/developed by Can’t Stay Out of The Kitchen — hope it does the trick!
Panera Bread’s Autumn Squash Soup
Fabulous copycat recipe of Panera Bread’s Autumn Squash Soup. This one’s filled with butternut squash, pumpkin, apple juice, half-and-half, vegetable broth and seasoned with cinnamon and curry. Garnish with roasted pumpkin seeds. This soup is gluten free.
Serves: 8
Ingredients
1 extra large butternut squash
2-3 tbsp. extra virgin coconut oil
salt and pepper, to taste
1 15-oz. can Libby’s Pumpkin
1 ½ cups apple juice
1 ½ cups vegetable broth
1 ½ cups half-and-half
1 ½ tbsp. honey
¼ tsp. curry powder
½ tsp. cinnamon
1 ½ tsp. kosher salt
¼ tsp. black pepper
roasted pumpkin seeds for garnish
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450°.
Peel squash.
Remove seeds and cut in chunks.
Place in baking dish or on cookie sheet and drizzle with oil.
Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
Bake at 450° for 25-30 minutes or until fork tender.
Mash squash with a potato masher and place in a large stock pot.
Add pumpkin, apple juice, half-and-half and vegetable broth.
Puree ingredients with an immersion blender until well mixed.
Add honey, curry, cinnamon, salt and pepper and heat through about 10-15 minutes at a low simmer.
To serve, garnish bowls of soup with roasted pumpkin seeds.
Notes
Adjust the apple juice, vegetable broth and half-and-half according to how large your butternut squash is. If the squash is smaller, decrease liquids. If it’s a whopper you may have to increase this amount.
The autumn squash soup is one of my favorite things at Panera. I wish they offered it year round, and not just in the fall, so a couple weeks ago, I tried making this very recipe. So good! Something tells me I’ll need ingredients on hand to read this book. 🙂
The squash soup wasn’t specifically mentioned, but it is my favorite too. Not sure if Panera still has it on the menu . . . maybe today is the day to find out! Glad to hear this recipe worked for you. I will definitely have to try it out soon. BTW, McAllisters has a good squash soup too. They put walnuts on it instead of pumpkin seeds.
Love this post, Beckie! I do often have eating scenes in my books, because that’s where great conversation often happens. It’s a good chance for readers to learn more about the characters.
Thanks for creating interesting characters and twisting, turning plots! Love your romantic suspense novels!
fun post!!
Thanks, Carrie! 🙂
Thanks for sharing my recipe.
You are very welcome. Can’t wait to try it. 😀