Vegan Mofo Day 13: Butternut Squash-Apple Soup

So I actually had a rare day off at home for Remembrance Day (Veteran's Day to you Americans), and, other than quietly paying my respects to our military, past and present, I did six loads of laundry and made a gigantic pot of butternut squash soup. It's Kirk's favourite, and it just so happens that we recently got three, count 'em three, butternut squashes in our Spud deliveries - two wee ones & one honkin' one. We've also been getting tonnes of apples in our Spud boxes, and I am not the biggest fan of eating apples that aren't made into something, so I decided to put some of them to good use too.

The soup turned out beautifully, even though I just kinda winged the recipe, but after I finished peeling and cutting the squash I noticed that the skin on my left (non-knife-holding) hand was stained orange and really tight. I went to wash my hands and the skin started peeling like a bad sunburn! I basically got a chemical peel from the squash. They were organic squashes, so it shouldn't have been anything on them. Has anyone experienced this before? Everything's fine now, but it kinda freaked me out...

Butternut Squash & Apple Soup
* 1 tbsp olive oil
* 2 shallots or 1/2 sweet onion, diced
* 2 cloves garlic, peeled & crushed
* 3 medium butternut squashes (or 2 wee & 1 huge), peeled, seeded & cut into 1" chunks
* 3 apples (I used golden delicious), peeled, seeded & cut into 1" chunks
* water or vegetable stock
* 1 tsp salt (optional if using vegetable stock)
* 1/2 tsp ground allspice
* sprinkle of ground nutmeg
* 1/4 cup sweet white wine (I used a moscato), or 1-2 tbsp lemon juice

Heat the olive oil in your biggest soup pot then add the shallots and garlic and sweat until soft. Put the squash and apples in the pot and add enough water or stock (or a combination of the two) to cover. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-high and continue to simmer until the squash and apples are soft (mine took about 20 minutes). Ladle out some of the water, just so there's only a bit of liquid peeking out over the top of the squash pieces. Use your hand blender to puree the soup right in the pot, or spoon it into a food processor or blender (you'll have to do that in batches). Add the salt, allspice, nutmeg and wine and stir to combine. Serve warm with crusty bread and a glass of the wine you used in the recipe.