Butternut Curry Soup

As KitchenGadgetGirl reports in her Thursday Thirteen, I do love my immersion blender. Here is one of the reasons why: Butternut Curry Soup. 

Here is my recipe. (It serves about 2-3 people, and could be doubled easily.)

• 1 medium butternut squash, peeled and coarsely diced
  
• A little olive oil
• 3-4 cups of chicken or vegetable stock (or however much it takes to cover your diced squash)
  
• 1/2 can of coconut milk
  
• 1.5 tsp Thai green curry paste (although I think red curry paste would be delightful as well.)
  
• salt
  
• pepper
• A very awesome immersion blender (ideally) or a good blender 
  

Put the butternut squash, a dash of salt and olive oil in your soup pot. Saute for about 3-4 minutes. Add chicken stock and a little pepper. Bring to a simmer. Simmer until all squash is soft (usually about 20 minutes or less, depending on how agressively you diced.) Pour out a little of the stock (you need to reduce the overall liquid a little, but not much.) 

Now you should have a soup pot with a bunch of soft chunks of squash in some liquid. Let it cool a bit. Now is the time for the immersion blender. The benefit to this is that you now only have to clean up a tiny attachment, not a whole blender. Plus, it is fun. Make sure it is immersed* and blend until everything is smooth and creamy (and not a second longer!)   

At this point, your soup should look and taste like plain old butternut squash soup. If you like that, stop here. However, to take it a little further, add about 1/2 can of coconut milk and about a teaspoon and a half of Thai green curry. Heat a little to bring the flavors together. Salt/add curry to taste. Heat when ready to serve. 

*Of course the benefit of not cleaning up the blender can be outweighed by massive spatter all over your kitchen, so it is important to make sure your blender really is all the way in there!