Autumn Gold Butternut Squash Soup - With Thai Inspired Flavors

BecR's Note:

A beautiful golden-hued butternut squash soup, with a delightful Thai accent! Delicious! The perfect first course for an autumnal meal, or serve as a light main course with a tossed salad and crusty bread. Recipe is an adapted one from Whole Foods Market.

• Total Time: 55 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2⁄3; cup diced carrot
• ½ cup diced celery
• 2⁄3; cup diced onion
• 1 tablespoon red curry paste
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger
• 4 cups cubed butternut squash (about 1 medium squash)
• 4 -6 cups low sodium chicken broth
• ½ cup coconut milk (light or regular)
• sea salt & fresh ground pepper , to taste
• pappadams , to garnish
• toasted coconut flakes , to garnish
• chopped fresh cilantro , to garnish

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add carrot, celery and onion, and stir in the curry paste and the chopped ginger. Cook until vegetables are tender and ginger is aromatic, 3 to 4 minutes.
2. Add butternut squash, stirring to combine. Bring to a boil (add a little chicken broth if necessary), then reduce heat and simmer until squash is fork-tender, about 30 minutes. Stir in chicken broth and light or regular coconut milk. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Use an immersion blender to puree soup. Alternatively, let the soup cool slightly and carefully puree in batches in a traditional blender.
4. Garnish each serving with 1 or 2 pappadums, a tablespoon toasted coconut flakes and a tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro.

Reviews

[dianegrapegrower]

Very nice! We loved this soup. I think it's very dependent on your choice of curry paste - we used golden curry, which is fairly mild. So needed to "punch" it up a bit with a little chili paste. Looking forward to having some more for lunch tomorrow! Thanks for sharing.

[Chef #1438653]

This was the first soup I've ever made from scratch! I always thought you would need a food processor to make it but a blender works just fine. For this recipe I used yellow curry paste to make it mild and when I added the squash I put in half a cup of broth until it softened before I added the rest of the liquids. The flavour turned out just as I had hoped....awesome!

[Brendah]

January 12, 2009 Absolutely delicious. It was served to a large group of people for a New Year Eve dinner. I tripled the recipe and had it for lunch for several more days. I used the red curry paste and it was still a very mild soup. It was a big hit and I will be sharing the recipe with many others.