Thai butternut squash soup

Thai Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients: 

1 Butternut Squash

Coconut Oil

1 Sweet Onion

4-5-6 Cloves of Garlic

Ginger (Full finger size piece)

Veggie or Chicken Stock

Garam Masala

Curry Powder

Salt and Pepper

1/2 can of Coconut Milk full fat, refrigerated to separate the cream out.

1 Lime

Cilantro for Garnish

I cut the top and bottom off the butternut squash and then peel the skin off with a veggie peeler, it's a lot of work to do it this way, but it  is what it is.  Takes about 10-15 minutes, probably the hardest part of the whole thing, making the end result that much sweeter.  When it's peeled, cut it down the middle lengthwise and scrape the guts out like a pumpkin with a spoon.  Then lay on the side and cut into stripes and then into chunks.

Cut up the onion, the ginger and the garlic, my garlic was still whole here, but I wanted to shoot the picture before dumping it all in the pan, I needed more room for chopping the garlic.

All chopped up and ready to saute with coconut oil.  Do so until it's fully transparent, but not browned.

Like so below!

Now add your garam masala, curry, salt and pepper, and dont be stingy with it.  Like a tablespoon of curry and 1/2 tbs of garam masala and teaspoon of salt and 1/2 of that in pepper or so, you know a good amount.  I went less here and then ended up adding more throughout the cooking process....ohh I also wanted a little bite, so I added a smige of cayenne pepper too, but I didn't include that in the ingredients above...you gotta read the recipe to know the secret bite to the soup. 

Add the cubed butternut squash and then add some veggie or chicken stock, which ever you have on hand.  I used chicken since that's what I had.  I also only used 8 ounces and then added some water as well.

Now you cook it, takes about 40 minutes on a nice simmer/low boil.   When you are done cooking it, then you have some options as to how to make it into your soup...What I did was took some water out, stuck my hand blender/emulsifier into the stock pot and blended. After it's blended Add in your coconut cream from the top of the refrigerated can of coconut milk and the juice of a fresh lime and simmer for 10-20 additional minutes.  If it's not the right consistency, add back your water you took out, before and after the coconut milk, which I did, I like a thinner soup, not a thick bisque, but again it's your soup, so make it how thick/thin you want it to be.  A lot of people LOVE it really quiet thick, so then when you take some water out, leave it out and adding the coconut cream is enough to thin it back down.  It's great like that as well.   Other options for making into a soup are a food processor and a blender. 

Here is the final product.  I like cilantro as a garnish, you can chop it up or eat it whole.  People also like to garnish with chopped up peanuts, but I dont have any.

Hope you enjoy making your Thai Butternut Squash Soup! This recipe is Gluten and Dairy free and if you use veggie stock it's Vegan as well.  And it's Paleo!