Roasted Garlic Butternut Squash Soup to Lower Cholesterol
Cholesterol is kind of a funny thing. While our bodies need (and even produce) a certain amount of it to help with building healthy cells, too much of it can be a bad thing because it may increase your risk of heart disease. And considering that heart disease and related complications are the leading cause of death worldwide, it definitely makes sense to try and make sure that your cholesterol levels don’t get too high. The good news is there are all kinds of ridiculously tasty and healthy meals you can make that can help with that. Soups in particular are a great choice, as you’ll see with this recipe for making a garlic roasted butternut squash soup that helps to lower cholesterol. The soup is made with ingredients that are known to have proven cholesterol lowering properties. Best of all, it just tastes plain good – roasted garlic combined with butternut squash definitely produces one of the best tasting soups I’ve ever tried.
Garlic Makes Everything Better
The first thing you’ll want to do before anything else is rinse off your lentils and coriander. After setting them aside, place your butternut squash in a roasting pan. One of the main reasons why I love using butternut squash for making homemade soups is because it’s such a tasty and nutrient-dense type of squash. It’s packed full of essential nutrients like vitamins B6, C, and E, iron, potassium, magnesium, and manganese. Butternut squash is also a rich source of carotenes, which are converted into vitamin A by your body. (1)
Drizzle your squash with two tablespoons of olive oil, and then start prepping your garlic by cutting off the tops of the heads and peeling their outer skin off. Drizzle the garlic with some olive oil as well before wrapping it in heavy-duty foil. Both garlic and olive oil are perfect complementary ingredients to along with the butternut squash when making this recipe. Both ingredients provide quite a bit of protection against heart disease, as they’ve both demonstrated cholesterol lowering properties. (2)(3) That doesn’t even begin to take into consideration the immense amount of flavor they add to the soup, especially in the case of the garlic.
Bake the garlic together with the butternut squash in the roasting pan for about 30-35 minutes. While they’re baking, you can add the remaining olive oil into a large pot and then start cooking your onion. When you consider that onions are a member of the same Allium family as garlic is, it should be no surprise that it offers some pretty similar benefits, including the ability to help lower your cholesterol. (4)
Next, add in the celery, lentils, bone broth, and water into the pot and bring the soup to a low boil. Cover with a lid and leave it cook for about 15-20 minutes. Squeeze the softened garlic into the pot before finally adding in the roasted butternut squash and cooking the whole thing for a few more minutes. To finish everything off, transfer the mixture into an immersion blender, puree until smooth, and then stir in a bit of chopped parsley. Sprinkle a bit extra chopped parsley on as a final finishing touch when serving and enjoy!
Roasted Garlic Butternut Squash Soup to Lower Cholesterol
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 4-6 1x
Ingredients
- 1 butternut squash (about 1 ½ pounds), halved, seeded, peeled
- 1 large head of garlic
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 celery stalks, chopped
- ¼ cup dry red lentils
- 4 cups homemade bone broth or stock
- 2 cups water
- 4 tbsp chopped parsley plus extra for garnish
- salt, black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Rinse the lentils in a colander and set aside.
- Preheat oven to 425°.
- Place the butternut squash in a roasting pan.
- Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of olive oil.
- Peel (most of) the papery outer skin off the garlic.
- Cut the top off the head of garlic.
- Drizzle with ½ tablespoon of olive oil and wrap in heavy-duty foil.
- Place the garlic in the roasting pan.
- Bake 30-35 minutes or until softened.
- Meanwhile, in a large pot heat 1 ½ tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat.
- Add the onion and cook for 4-5 minutes or until softened and translucent.
- Add the celery, red lentils, bone broth and water and bring the soup to a low boil.
- Cover with a lid and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the lentils are soft.
- Squeeze the softened garlic into the pot.
- Add the roasted butternut squash and cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Using an immersion blender or food processor or blender, puree the soup until smooth.
- Stir in the chopped parsley.
- Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
- Sprinkle with extra parsley and serve.
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