Spiced Butternut Squash Soup

A very sim­ple and fill­ing soup, per­fect for cold evenings. The twist is the addi­tion of curry pow­der and red Thai chilies — If the soup itself doesn’t warm you up, those sure will. It’s such a pretty soup and my friends and fam­ily raved about it — nobody expected the slight hit of chill­ies — they loved it.

Ingre­di­ents

8 cups of home­made chicken stock
1 tbs but­ter
1 large white onion, chopped
1 medium but­ter­nut squash, cooked
2 bay leaves
1 tsp curry pow­der *
2 tsp hun­gar­ian paprika
1/​2 tsp freshly ground black pep­per
Salt to taste

Gar­nish:
Thinly sliced spring onions
Thinly sliced and deseeded red Thai chilies

Direc­tions

Begin by cook­ing the but­ter­nut squash. I do it by slic­ing it in half, deseed­ing, then pop­ping in the microwave for about 8 min­utes. Times may vary.

When cooled enough to han­dle, skin the squash and cut into 1 inch cubes.

In a small skil­let, heat up the but­ter, tak­ing care not to burn. Add the chopped onion and sauté until browned. Set aside.

In a medium pot, warm up the stock and add the squash and browned onions. Bring to a boil, then add the spices, salt and bay leaves. Reduce and sim­mer for 15 min­utes until all fla­vors com­bine. Do taste tests fre­quently and adjust the spices to your lik­ing. When done sim­mer­ing, remove the bay leaves and finely purée the soup with an immer­sion blender.

Serve with the spring onions and finely chopped red Thai chilies.

* Use only bright yel­low curry pow­der. I find that some Madras cur­ries I used tend to be a more brown­ish in color and it ruins the bright­ness of the soup. Also, the curry fla­vor is only intended as a hint on the palate. Don’t use too much.