Curry Spiced Butternut Squash Soup

We may be in the Spring season, but there have still been quite a few cold, and even snowy days depending on where you live. We are in that back and forth phase of sipping our cold drink on the patio or bundling up inside with a warming meal. This butternut squash soup is perfect for a snowy or rainy day. It’s got bone broth to support a healthy immune system (with a vegan option), curry spices and ginger to warm your body and decrease inflammation, and coconut milk for healthy fat and a delicious creamy texture. Butternut squash and sweet potato are more immune supporting ingredients due to their vitamin A content.

This delicious soup is very easy to make. Just roast the curry-coated vegetables and blend with the remaining ingredients in a blender. You can eat the soup as your main meal or serve it on the side for a vegetable side dish providing fibre and vitamins. I highly recommend pairing the soup with a slice of homemade sourdough bread. It’s delicious! You can get the full tutorial and sourdough bread recipe in this previous post.

Since it’s hard to stock up on a large amount of fresh food regularly, due to decreased access to the grocery store from social distancing guidelines, this soup is a great recipe to add to your repertoire. Squash, onions, sweet potato, garlic, spices, and canned coconut milk are all shelf stable for a very long time. Squash can even last a couple months in your pantry if it’s cool and dry! As for the bone broth, I love to make my own and I always have a stocked freezer but you can also purchase it frozen at a health food store. This soup gives you many of the things you want from fresh food like fibre and vitamins, but these ingredients keep for much longer than other fruits and vegetables. So stock up on squash like butternut, acorn, spaghetti, and pumpkin, as well as sweet potatoes, if you can! If you want more pantry and freezer stock-up ideas, go check out this post on the CSNN Distance Education Blog for my lists.

Recipe

Ingredients:

1 small butternut squash, sliced in half lengthwise with seeds removed
1 red onion, peeled and cut into quarters
1 medium sweet potato, sliced in half lengthwise
4 whole cloves of garlic, peeled with the ends removed
2 tablespoons of avocado oil or extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of curry powder
2 cups of bone broth or vegetable broth
1 can (400ml) of full fat coconut milk
½” piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons of pure maple syrup
Salt, to taste (my bone broth is unsalted and I used 2 teaspoons total)
½ teaspoon of ground black pepper
Yogurt, dairy or non-dairy, for topping (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425F.
Place the squash, sweet potato, onion, and garlic cloves on a baking sheet. Rub the oil and curry powder onto the cut side of the squash and sweet potato, then flip them over so the skin side is up. Rub the onion and garlic with oil and curry powder as well.
Roast the vegetables in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, or until they are easily pierced with a fork. Then remove them and leave them to cool on the baking sheet.
When the vegetables are cool enough to handle, about 20 minutes later, remove the skins from the squash and sweet potato. Place all the roasted vegetables in your blender. Add the bone broth, coconut milk, ginger, and maple syrup, plus ½ teaspoon of salt and the pepper, and blend until smooth. Taste to see if you need to add salt.
Pour the soup into a small pot to warm it up, then serve in bowls with a dollop of yogurt (optional).

Notes: Serves 6. This soup will last about 5 days in an airtight container in the refrigerator if you have leftovers.

Contributed by Melanie Maxwell, R.H.N.
https://www.vibrantlywell.com/