Butternut Squash Soup

As its gotten pretty cold again, i felt like something hearty and warm - and what better thing to make but soup. I had bought a butternut squash a few weeks ago, and those things never go bad so i knew i would eventually get to use it. This soup was a bit of a mish-mash as i just used some of the ingredients i had left over in the fridge; half a sweet potato, some shredded carrots and roasted a head of garlic. I thought i would make it a thai curry soup with some coconut milk and then part way through making it i realized that i wanted to add some peanut butter to it too. I generally don't use a recipe while making most soups unless its one i've never made before and is really specific.

Normally i would have roasted the vegetables, but after my oven-fire alarm incident yesterday i thought i would give my neighbours a break. I stared with sauteing the onions and carrots to soften them, adding the red thai curry paste cooking it till fragrant. I then added the squash and sweet potato, sauteing them a little while longer. I added the veggie stock (low sodium and organic of course) bringing it to a boil.

Once the veggies were soft i added the coconut milk. I actually use powdered coconut milk - i often find that the cans are not only high in fat its often too much and i end up wasting the rest of the can. I also added the roasted garlic and peanut butter a this point. When you're using peanut butter in a soup i have two hints - first use natural peanut butter, a lot of brands have icing sugar in them. Second mix the peanut butter with some of the coconut milk to make it easier to blend into the soup.

Then i used my immersion blender and blended the soup until smooth. You could also use a blender and do it in batches. I then heated it through again thoroughly.

Above:

Soup
Roasted garlic (yum)
Ingredients
Ingredients chopped
Cooking the veggies