Butternut Squash Curry Soup

INGREDIENTS

2 medium sized butternut squash, roasted.

Kosher salt

Olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

3 t minced fresh ginger

2 t minced garlic

1 1/2 t coriander

1 t cumin

4 cups chicken broth or chicken stock

2-3 T red curry or panang curry paste (If your family doesn't like things too spicy, just add 2 t.)

(I like the panang better, but it's harder to find. I order mine from Amazon)

2 cups almond and coconut milk or 1 can lite coconut milk

2 t lime juice

Sriracha for serving

 Roast the butternut squash. Some people like to dice it into perfect little cubes, but when I'm just going to blend it up for a soup, I don't want to spend that much time making it look cute. I'm hungry and I just want to start slurping my soup! I just cut them in half, scoop out the seeds, rub them with olive oil, and then sprinkle them with kosher salt.

Roast them on a foil-covered pan at 375 degrees for about 45-60 minutes. You want them to start browning around the edges, but not burn. You'll just need to check them and make sure they're soft all of the way through.

During the last 5 minutes of the roasting time, heat up 2 teaspoons of olive oil at medium heat in your soup pot and cook your minced onion. Keep cooking and stirring until the onion is translucent. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.

Using a serving spoon, scoop the flesh of the roasted squash into the pan with the onions. Lower the heat to low and add the ginger and garlic. Add coriander and cumin and 2 t of kosher salt. Cook for about 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly to avoid burning. If the squash starts to stick, you can add a little of your chicken broth to the pan.

Add curry paste and chicken broth. Bring to a boil and then lower heat to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes. Check to make sure the squash is completely soft and completely cooked through so you won't have any lumps in your soup.

Add almond coconut milk (or lite coconut milk) and lime juice and cook for 2 minutes more. If you haven't tried substituting almond coconut milk for coconut milk in your favorite Thai recipes, you really should give it a whirl! It only has 45 calories for 8 ounces, while lite coconut milk has almost three times that! Blend soup thoroughly with immersion blender (or with normal blender). If you don't have an immersion blender, you can get one for 10-20 dollars and it makes the creation of healthy vegetable puréed soups a snap! This is the one that I have and it's still going strong after 2-3 years.

As you blend away, you can add more broth, water, or almond milk to get the consistency you like. Add more salt to taste. Serve with sriracha for those heat seeker, who, like me, like to feel the burn linger long after the meal is over.

We had this soup with Thai Peanut Chicken and it was a wonderful pairing. (You can also substitute almond coconut milk for the coconut milk in this and natural peanut butter or peanut butter powder.) I just used cauliflower rice instead of normal rice. (It looks like our family recipe for that isn't on the blog yet, so I'll post it soon and include a link here!)