Good soup!

For dinner a few nights ago I made a very yummy soup.  Now my family is not really the soup eating type, my dad adds crushed crackers until all broth is absorbed, while my husband doesn't care for anything that could pass as "baby food."  So the butternut squash soup experiment began!  So I finally found an almost winner, it still requires the crushed crackers, but everyone agreed it was very tasty!

Butternut Squash soup with black beans and chickpeas

2 med. size Butternut squash
1 stick of butter
2 cans chickpeas well drained and rinsed
2 cans black beans well drained and rinsed
chicken flavoring(optional)
Water (or Chicken or vegetable broth)

Bake the Butternut squash in a low heat oven (250-350) until the skin is slightly browned and pulling away from the flesh of the squash.

Peel, seed, and chunk the squash after it has cooled enough to handle.

I then cooked the squash further in a crock pot for a few more hours.

Place the pieces into a blender adding water (or stock) to help it reach the desired consistency.

Repeat the blending process until all chunks are blended and are now soup.

Add chicken flavoring and any other seasonings( I used two packets of Ramen Chicken flavoring because that was what I had in the house and it worked very well!)

Pour the soup back into the crock pot and add in the chickpeas and black beans.

Heat and enjoy!

My family of course still added crushed crackers, but it would also be great with bread.  I think the chickpeas can be omitted if you wanted, it is the black beans that really give the contrasting flavor and make the dish interesting.