Soup season is definitely here. I have several favorite soups (Butternut Vegetable Soup, Lentil Soup and Tuscan Five-Bean Soup come to mind), but I decided I needed to try something I hadn’t made before, Curried Butternut Squash Soup. It was an easy choice because (a) I have all that end-of-market squash in the basement and (b) I got an immersion blender
for my birthday, and, naturally, I had to try it out.
Of course, I was missing an item or two from the ingredient list, so I made do with what I had on hand, which yielded a lovely soup, saved me a trip to the store and resulted in a recipe for which more people probably have the ingredients handy.
Curried Butternut Squash Soup
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 cups finely chopped yellow onion
- 4 teaspoons curry powder (that’s 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon)
- 1/4 teaspoon thyme
- 1 3-pound butternut squash
- 2 cups peeled, sliced tart apples
- 3 cups water
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- Leafy tops of celery stalk
- 1 bay leaf
- Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- Melt butter in heavy 4- to 5-quart pot over medium heat. Add onions, curry powder and thyme; reduce heat to low. Cover, and let onions cook slowly till tender, about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally, and check to make sure onions don’t burn.
- Meanwhile, wash squash. Pierce in a few places and place in microwave oven. Cook on high 3 minutes. Remove and peel. (Microwave step is optional, but it makes for easier peeling.) Cut open, remove seeds and cut squash in chunks.
- Add squash and apple slices to tender onions. Add water, juice, celery tops and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook, partially covered, until squash and apples are very tender, 20-30 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Remove celery and bay leaf. Puree soup mixture with immersion blender or press through a sieve or food mill. Taste, and then add salt and black pepper as desired. (I used about 1/2 teaspoon salt.) Serve hot. Makes about 8 servings.
Healthy and tasty
My friends and I loved the soup, and it could hardly be healthier. There’s not enough butter in there to hurt you, while the squash, apples and onions provide tons of vitamins, minerals and fiber. It’s amazing how rich the soup seems.
Curried Butternut Squash soup is one of my winter favorites. And, who says butter hurts you? ;)
It’s a good fat (yes, there is such a thing!), and if it comes from pastured cows it’s rich in Vitamins A & D. Plus, And just about any kind of butter’s a thousand times better than fake-food margarine.
Janet Majure // Dec 10, 2008 at 9:47 am
Hi, Kristen. I’m all for butter, but not everyone agrees. You might be interested in reading my series about Real Food, starting here. Thanks, by the way, for the mention on your website, and good luck with it. It looks great!
Thank you for sharing the link to your review of the book. It seemed like a much better answer to the questions readers faced when finished with The Omnivore’s Dilemma than Pollan’s follow up book, In Defense of Food.
And, thanks for the compliment on my new site. I’ve been blogging for about 6 years, both personally and for businesses. But this is the first site I’ve ever launched that was so narrow in focus. The good news is that it’s a focus I can write endlessly on and never bore of. Let’s hope my readers enjoy it!
Bailey Barash // Jan 14, 2009 at 10:48 pm
I’m really excited about making this curried butternut squash soup this weekend because it doesn’t have any milk or cream in it. I can’t digest milk products and I agree the squash flavor is rich enough that it’s not needed.
Thank you.