I wasn’t sure if I was going to post this soup recipe but I have gotten in the habit of taking pictures just in case and I’m so glad I did because this soup is the bomb diggity.
This isn’t a miraculous recipe like combining nori with peanut butter and banana but just because it’s not living on the edge doesn’t mean it’s any less exciting.
A few very simple ingredients mixed with simple spices and voila. It could be mixed via blender, food processor, or immersion hand blender (I’m guessing). I only used half of the steamed squash in the soup leaving the rest to serve on the side of your meal or for breakfast the next day served with banana, cinnamon and maybe even a little maple syrup.
We picked this guy up at last Saturday’s farmer’s market and through my google research decided it’s a buttercup squash. I will definitely be buying one of these again. It’s the kind of vegetable you pick up and call it your new favorite even though in reality many vegetables are your ‘favorite’. The cute little crown you see is actually the bottom of the squash. This crown can be quite pronounced on some and recessed (like this one) on others.
The nice thing about squash between varieties is that they are all basically alike in how to prepare and cook. If you like steaming an acorn squash, steaming pumpkin or a butternut squash isn’t different at all. I like that.
Today I decided to steam the squash in my Hamilton Beach Steamer. I was inspired to cut it the way I did after seeing steamed acorn squash from one of my instagram friends. It made a beautiful star shape due to the ridges.
Because I left the skin on I washed it really well first. I then cut it in half then in slices before removing the seeds with the curved part of my grapefruit knife. Worked like a charm.
The nice thing about this steamer is you can remove the bottom of the top tray and just keep stacking the squash into the 2nd tray. I steamed the squash for 40 minutes although I would suggest checking them at 30 minutes. Add quartered onions in the last 20 minutes – they will smell and taste amazing.
Chili Ginger Buttercup Squash Soup
Ingredients
- 1 buttercup squash, sliced and seeds removed
- 2 small onions
- juice from a small lemon
- 1 can of unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon ginger powder
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- cayenne pepper to taste
Instructions
- By any means necessary steam the squash and onions - sliced up it will take about 30 minutes maybe less. Allow to cool until you can bravely handle it.
- Once everything is cooled down scoop or slice about 1/2 of the TOTAL squash from the skin and place in your blender (or a bowl if using an immersion blender) along with coconut milk, lemon juice, ginger, chili powder, cumin powder, garlic powder, sea salt, and cayenne pepper.
- Blend everything until smooth and enjoy!
Notes
This was a thicker soup but had a perfectly smooth texture. If you prefer a broth-ier soup feel free to add vegetable broth or water and adjust spice levels as needed.
We each had a bowl of this along with some fish and a few pieces of the steamed buttercup squash (plain). It is amazing plain – I kid you never.
We had about 1/4 of the squash leftover which I plan to consume with bananas along with my warm green drink.
10/16/12: Quick update I just heated up some of the remaining soup, added a little hot water while heating up and topped it with red cabbage apple sauerkraut and cilantro. So good!
Do you like to pick up a squash you haven’t tried yet when at the store or farmer’s market?
XOXO