It’s split pea or ham and potato for me.
In my mind, soup is just a technique that’s really about the stock. This is just me suggesting that you all should adopt traditional French cooking technique.
For me, it’s saving old chicken scraps and certain veggies and then cooking them until they are mush in water. Grocery store rotisserie chicken skin, bones, and juice; carrots, onions, celery, garlic. Anything getting past it’s prime. No brassicas though. I’ll throw a t bone in there, but while really good beef broth is amazing, good beef bones cost as much as real beef.
Clam juice or shrimp/crab/lobster shells sauteed in butter with water (or the aforementioned stock…) Is also awesome.
Once you’ve got that, just put anything in it. That’s good soup.
Make sure that you put the correct amount of salt in it. If there’s no salt, stock tastes terrible.
I love winter squash (roasted and al dente), but I’ve never really liked pureed soups. I can’t complain, but they are too bougie for me. Meanwhile, I’m also wanting lobster/crab/shrimp bisque that need to be that except for the expensive stuff.
I just need some solid chunks in my soup.
You could add some piece of ham/lard in the puree soup, and eat with bread or “crouton”
If you’re set against it I won’t try to convince you, but you can always reserve as many pieces of simmered butternut squash as you like and put them back in after blending. You can do the same with potato chunks, and also add other things in after pureeing like herbs or leafy greens.
There’s a lot you can do to add to the texture of a pureed soup.