Curried Butternut Soup

I found this recipe on THIS WEBSITE and decided to give it a try. I loved it. My family, not so much. But if you love curry, squash, or ginger you might like it too. I did tweak it a little bit.

Here are the ingredients:

1 large or two small butternut squash. Peeled and diced. Enough to make 6-8 cups.

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 Tb. fresh grated ginger root

6 cups chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon mustard powder

4 teaspoons yellow curry powder

olive oil

salt to taste

chopped cilantro and sour cream for garnish

1. Cut both ends off the squash and peel it with a vegetable peeler. I was skeptical that this would work, but it was actually really easy. Half the squash and scoop out the "guts" with a spoon. Then dice the squash into small cubes.

2. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a fry pan and cook the cubed squash in batches over medium high heat. You want them to brown, but not burn. Stir away until the pieces are tender. Salt to taste, then set aside.

*Just a side note: If I took nothing else from this recipe, I would be happy in knowing a new way to cook butternut squash. These panfried pieces were SO yummy. I kept sneaking pieces. I'll probably never bake squash again.

3. Now add a little move olive oil to a thick bottomed stock pot. Heat it up and add:

the chopped onion

the minced ginger

curry powder

mustard powder

Stir those around until the onions are nice and brown. (Oops. Forgot to take a picture.)

4. Now add your chicken broth and the cooked squash pieces into the stock pot. Pull out your immersion blender.

You have one don't you? NO?!? Well you should! Let me know if you don't and I'll buy you one for Christmas.

Just kidding. But seriously, you really should have an immersion blender in the kitchen. We got one for our wedding and I never used it until about two years ago because I didn't know what it was for. Now I use it weekly if not daily. How on Earth did I survive without it? Once you have one, you'll never go back. Trust me.

If you don't have one you can use a regular blender and just pour it in small batches. Messy though.

ANYWAY, assuming you have an immersion blender, immerse it in your soup and blend away until the entire thing is smooth as... well... something smooth. It will look like baby food. Don't be afraid though. It's very yummy.

It's even better if you put a dollop of sour cream and some chopped cilantro on top.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I think I want to have some more right now.

Good thing, because no one else seems to be eating it....

*sigh*

Sometimes I wonder why I bother to experiment in the kitchen at all.

Oh well. Looks like I'll be eating curried butternut soup all week long.