Butternut Squash Soup

Written by Shonali Burke on 09 December 2011

I’m always intrigued by the creamy soups restaurants serve. So earlier this year, I decided to see if I could come up with a butternut squash soup recipe. Yes, I’m into hard squashes.

Turns out, it’s really easy. And it’s unbelievably delicious and hearty. So here it is.

Ingredients (serves four)

2 lbs butternut squash, peeled and diced
2 yellow onions
2″ ginger, chopped
1½ tsp curry powder
2 tsp chives, chopped
2½ cups water (you can use broth, if you prefer, but water works just fine)
1 tbsp sour cream
salt to taste
olive oil for cooking

Note: if you’ve never peeled a butternut squash before, you’ll go looking on the Interwebz and find a lot of sites telling you to how to do it; i.e. lop off the top & bottom, and then stand the squash vertically on a chopping board and use a peeler.

Rubbish! I tried doing that, and kept banging my knuckles. So what I did was prick the squash with a knife (just as you would when pre-cooking spaghetti squash), and then zap it in the microwave for about 4-5 minutes (make sure you watch it and take it out earlier if you think it’s going to explode).

Then I took it out and let it cool. After that I lopped off the top & bottom, laid it on its side to peel it (much easier, and now, since the skin is softer, a regular paring knife will work too), and then halved and cleaned it out. Finally, I cut it into small chunks.

Glad we got that straightened out.

Recipe

In a large sauté pan, heat the oil. Saute onions over medium until they start becoming translucent, but make sure they don’t burn. Add the chopped ginger and sauté for a couple more minutes.
Add the chopped squash and mix well. Add curry powder, half the chives, salt and, after stirring well, add the water. Let simmer until the squash is tender; it will probably take 20 minutes or so. If you want a thicker soup, make sure you have just a little bit of water left, so boil off whatever you don’t want.
Turn the heat down low. Gently stir in the sour cream.
Remove the pan from the heat. In batches, pour the concoction into a blender until you have a smooth purée.
Top with a dollop of sour cream and chopped chives; serve and enjoy.

Yup. That’s it. It’s divine!