Butternut White Bean Soup

I got the idea to make some butternut squash soup earlier in the week from chatting with some "what's cooking" nesties What's Cooking on the Nest Cara and Joelen. Joelen (Joelen's blog) mentioned having a fantastic butternut soup at a restaurant and Cara mentioned making a butternut soup with black beans (Cara's Blog)
I wanted to use white beans and thought that red peppers would be good too. Trader Joes sells prechopped butternut squash. So when I was there the other day I bought 2 packages. This morning I wasn't sure how I wanted to make the soup.

I googled butternut soups and couldn't find one to try, but did confirm that it should be made similar to potato soup, and I learned how to roast red peppers. So I kind of just threw something together.

2 Tbs butter
2 Tbs Olive oil
1 1/2 Cups of diced yellow onion
1 1/2 Cups of diced celery
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 Cups of diced carrots
4 Cups chopped butternut squash
4 Cups Chicken Broth
2 Cups Water
2 Roasted Bell Peppers (followed the recipe steps 1-5) http://www.recipezaar.com/131936
3 (4 would be better) cans of white beans

Heat the butter and oil in a large dutch oven on medium heat. Add the celery and onions and cook down for a few minutes. Add the spices and combine well. Add the carrots and cook for a few more minutes until the celery and onions are soft. Add the squash and heat for about 5 minutes. Add the Chicken broth and water and cook until the squash falls apart. Add the roasted peppers and cook for another ten minutes.
Puree with a food processor. Add back into the pan with rinsed and drained beans. I could only find 3 cans of white beans in the pantry. I think that 4 would have been better.
Enjoy!