Thai Squash Soup

As always, not a short of my soup, but this is what it looks
like--this cook garnished the soup with toasted coconut

I'm feeling so inspired by my new ability to post recipes that I can't resist sharing this one, that I made for dinner tonight.  It's a delicious, fairly nutritious (depends on whether you think coconut milk is good or bad for you) squash soup that's tangy, creamy and exploding with flavor.

I found this recipe somewhere online, and then combined it with another.  The first time I made it, the kids, who were really young, grabbed their tongues and started crying, it was so spicy.  I thought they were being wimps, but then Scott and I tried it and realized it was inedible it was that hot.

Big guilty parenting moment.

The next day I made a whole other recipe to try to diffuse the heat and succeeded enough for the grown-ups, but not the kids.  Needless to say, we had a lot of Thai Squash soup for a long long time.

The problem was the brand of red curry paste I used--some authentic brand that I can't remember.  1 tsp of that red curry paste was enough to over-heat 6 quarts of soup.  Now I use Thai Kitchen red curry paste which is far milder, so I use 1 Tbs/recipe.  My advice?  If you're not using Thai Kitchen, start with 1/2 a tsp. and work up.

Enjoy!

Thai Squash Soup

2 large butternut squash

1 lg. Can pumpkin

2 c. chopped onion

6 cloves garlic

2 Tbs. Grated ginger

2 limes, zest and juice (about 1/2 cup)

½ tsp. Turmeric

½ tsp red curry paste (Taste of Thai is not spicy, used 1 Tbs.)

1 Tbs. oil

3 cups chicken Broth

6 cups water,

1 can coconut milk

Salt to taste

1. Halve squash, scoop out seeds, roast covered with foil for at least an hour at 350 until soft.
2. Saute onion, garlic, ginger and zest in oil until soft. 
3. Add turmeric & chili paste.  Saute.
4. Add scooped out of skin squash, pumpkin, water/broth, simmer.  Add coconut milk and lime juice.  Puree. 
5. Adjust seasonings.  

Note:  If you don't want a very tangy soup--akin to Chinese hot sour soup--use only the juice of 1 lime