Spicy Butternut Squash Soup with Lemon-Maple Brussels Sprouts

Most butternut squash soups are a little sweet for me. Honestly, I’ve got a major sweet tooth but some things, like my soups, I want to be more on the savory side.  So, this soup is still sweet of course, but the jalapeño and cooking sherry (or white wine) create some interesting flavors that help offset the sweetness.  And, while I don’t generally cook with oil, I added a tiny drizzle of truffle oil before serving – YUM.  Since I was a little heavy-handed with the jalapeño (by my definition – remember, I’m a spice wimp), I dumped my Lemon-Maple Brussels Sprouts in the soup to offset the heat.  Delicious!  In the future I will leave the seeds out of the jalapeño – this time I used half of the seeds and the soup was really spicy.