Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup

That is a really long name for a soup, but i'm not feeling very creative at the moment so we will go with it. While I was waiting for my family to come home from there trip to England, I decided to make them a light dinner.  I was feeling a little under the weather, so I decided to make a butternut squash soup.  I can never get enough of any soup made with butternut squash.  So I just went to the fridge and pantry and pulled out what we had.  I loved it and highly suggest making it.  To make it less fattening just add more chicken broth instead of cream.

Ingredients:

1 medium Yellow Onion
1 T. Olive Oil
1 T. Butter
6 C. of chopped Butternut Squash
1 1/2 C. Chicken Stock (I used Rachel Rae)
1 can of Coconut Milk
1 C. Heavy Cream
2 t. Curry Powder
1/2 t. Cinnamon
1/4 t. Nutmeg
Salt and Pepper to taste
Raw Pumpkin Seeds (optional)

In a sauce pan add oil and butter to the bottom of the pan with chopped onions.  Adding the olive oil and butter cuts down the amount of butter in the soup, but gives it that buttery taste. Saute onions until they start to brown up a bit, this will take about 5 minutes.  Add butternut squash.

In some grocery stores such as Costco and Harmons, they have containers of pre-cut squash so I just get those and use them.  If you dont have those options, then cut open a butternut squash, de-seed, and cut off the skin.  Cut the squash into chunks and add to your pan.  If you dont want to do this, you can also cook it at 350 degrees in the oven until its fork tender.  Then add it to your soup.

Once the butternut squash is added, add chicken stock. In my pan, I used about 1-2 cups, but basically it depends on how much squash you have.  You just want enough stock to barely cover the top.  Then simmer the squash until its soft and easy to mash. Takes about 20 minutes.

Add curry powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper and stir.  Taste the soup and see if you need more  curry powder, it all depends on how much you like curry.  My family is not huge curry fan, so I didn't add a lot, I am, so if I made this for me I would have added another Tablespoon.  Next add the can of coconut milk and let it heat up.  Take off the heat and put soup in a blender and blend up until its a smooth creamy soup.  Place back into you pan and let it sit at a low heat.  If you want you can now add the cream and bring it up to warm.  Just make sure you dont boil the soup anymore.

Place in a bowl and add pumpkin seeds as a garnish.  I love the crunch with the squash.  In fact when I make squash as a side dish I often garnish with pumpkin seeds!

Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup