• Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees
• Add your cut and cleaned carrots (not the green tops) and cut and halved acorn squash to a sheet pan and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  8 medium fresh carrots, 2 acorn squash
• Roast your vegetables for about 20-25 minutes or until they start to brown a little and are soft all the way though
• Once cooked, remove from the oven and let cool for a minute before handling
• In the meantime, heat a large heavy bottom pot over medium heat and add ½ of your olive oil
  3 tablespoon good quality olive oil
• Now add your diced shallots and 1 clove of your minced garlic and cook for about 4-5 minutes
  1 shallot diced, 2 cloves of garlic minced
• Now add your chicken stock, thyme and bay leaf
  32 ounces chicken stock, ¼ teaspoon dried thyme, 1 bay leaf
• Now you are going to get the roasted vegetables ready to add to the pot by scooping the flesh of the acorn squash away from the skin. You may be able to just peel the skin of the squash right off.
• Once this is done, you can add your whole carrots and the flesh of the squash right into your soup.
• You can mash it down a bit with the back of your spoon. Don't worry about smoothness here since we will be pureeing it all in a blender.
• Now add your salt, pepper and your cream
  1 cup heavy whipping cream, 1 teaspoon salt and pepper
• Mix it well and let it come to a light simmer
• Once it has simmered for a few minutes, remove your bay leaf and discard.
• Bring your pot over to the blender (If you have an immersion blender, you can just puree your soup right in the pot and skip the blender steps)
• Add your soup to the blender making sure to only fill it ¾ of the way to the top as hot soup will expand in the blender
• Place the top on your blender tightly and cover with a towel. Puree your soup on high for 2 minutes or until smooth
• You may need to do this in batches to make sure you do not over fill your blender
• Once your soup is all blended and smooth, add it back to your pot. Taste for any seasoning (add salt and pepper to taste) then place over low heat with a lid on top.

Carrot top pistou (carrot top pesto)

• Take the green tops from your carrots and finely chop them
• Add this to a food processor along with the remaining ⅛ cup of olive oil, 1 clove of minced garlic and your Parmesan cheese and blitz until it is smooth.
  ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese, 1 whole bunch of carrot top greens, 1 clove of garlic, ⅛ cup extra virgin olive oil
• Add your pistou to a small bowl

Assemble

• Ladle your soup into bowls and top with a dollop of the pistou
• Enjoy!