Can I roast the squash ahead?

Yes — up to 2 days in advance.

Can I make it vegetarian?

Yes, swap vegetable stock and skip the sausage.

Add a splash of cream or coconut milk at the end.

Creamy roasted butternut squash meets savory sausage and spiced apple relish for a cozy, satisfying fall soup.

Units Scale

For the Soup:

For the Sausage Topping

For the Spiced Apple Relish

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Roast squash, shallot, and garlic at 400°F until tender, 45–75 minutes.
Smaller squash will cook much faster than a larger one. Just check at the 45 minute mark and then periodically after that.
Add cooked vegetables to dutch oven with stock, cinnamon, and rosemary and use immersion blender to combine until smooth.
Place dutch oven on stove and heat through on medium-low heat.
Add more chicken stock 1/2 a cup at a time until soup reaches desired consistency. It should be slightly thick.
You may want the soup slightly thicker than normal to hold the weight of the sausage and apple topping.
Taste soup and adjust cinnamon and salt to your preference.
Cook sausage in a skillet until browned and crisp.
Meanwhile, mix chopped apples, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
Ladle soup into bowls. Top with sausage, then apple relish. Sprinkle with with pepitas and a drizzle of olive oil, if desired.

For deeper flavor, use Homemade Chicken Stock.
Use extra cinnamon to deepen fall flavor.
Have plenty of stock on hand to thin soup to your desired consistency - it's all going to hinge on how big your squash is.