Butternut Squash Coconut Soup
This year we planted something different, and the results are spectacular. We’re up to our eyeballs in butternut squash here on the micro farm, so lots of canning and roasting of those delectable orange beauties are in order. The other day I discovered a couple of cups of leftover roasted butternut squash sitting in the fridge doing nothing but making me feel like a wasteful slob (there are children starving in [__name of third world country here__]), and I thought that making a soup with it would use the last of the leftover goodness and take the guilt of throwing it out off my shoulders. Sometimes I will mix things together to explore what’s should in theory be tasty and sometimes what’s not so tasty (actually, that happens a lot more often than I like to admit). Fortunately, the food gods smiled on my efforts and here’s the recipe to prove it.
Ingredients:
2 cups of roasted butternut squash* 1/2 cup of coconut milk 1/2 tsp of curry powder a dash of Sriracha hot chili sauce (found in the Asian section of the grocery store) or Tabasco sauce 2 tbsp of peanut butter 5 leaves of fresh Thai basil, or 1/4 tsp of dried basil Optional roasted pistachio nuts salt to taste enough water to cover everything in the blender
Process:
Put everything but the pistachios in a blender and blend until smooth. If you have a Vitamix blender, just blend for 5 minutes until steaming hot. If you aren’t fortunate enough to have one of these culinary miracles, don’t worry; just blend in your standard blender and pour the contents into a pan and heat on the stove. After it’s heated, serve up and top off with the pistachios to your liking, or without if you don’t like those tasty green nuggets.
*Roasting butternut squash is easy. Just cut the squash in half length-wise and scoop out the seeds – salt and pepper to taste; oil up a roasting pan and place the squash cut side down; set your oven on 450 degrees; pop the pan in the oven and roast for around 45 minutes or until done. Test it with a fork. If it resists any, roast some more until soft.
