Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Last weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving and my Dad’s birthday. It’s tricky having family members birthday right around a big holiday. You are pulled in so many directions with different family’s wanting to spend time with you for the holidays and the birthday on top of that. Two birthdays actually because my boyfriends birthday is the week before Thanksgiving so he usually combines the two over in Vancouver and go to Victoria. This year we managed to try something different and it was fun. We both went to Vancouver for his birthday and went to a play with the family and then the following weekend (turkey weekend) we went to my folks place and had a big family turkey/birthday dinner. 

It’s become a tradition for me to help decorate the dining table. This year, my partner and I went to Beacon Hill Park and collected fall foliage, garden bed a few squash from the garden and pretty much decorated the table beautifully for free. It’s nice when you can do something nice with very little cash.

Over the years, our family has stuck to a pretty standard menu of turkey, stuffing, sweet potato, mashed potato, veggies and Christmas Jell-O Salad (my brothers favourite). Recently I’ve been trying to introduce new recipes to the mix. First it was recipes for Canadian Living and this year it was recipes from The Food Network magazine. We still had our usual stuff, but this year we added a starter of Curried Butternut Squash Soup and finished with Pumpkin Parfait. Everything turned out delicious. I’ve posted the soup recipe below but if you want to make the pumpkin parfait, just used Midel’s gluten free gingersnaps and follow the recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/pumpkin-pie-parfaits-recipe/index.html 

Curried Butternut Squash Soup in pumpkin bowls
-based on recipe by The Food Network 

For the Bowls:
10 small baking pumpkins
Sea salt 

For the Soup:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ small onion, chopped
Sea salt
1 medium butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup gluten free chicken broth
1 teaspoon sugar
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1-2 tablespoons mild curry powder 

Toppings:
Gluten free croutons
Bacon
Pumpkinseeds

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Use an apple corer cut a large circle around the stem of each pumpkin. Remove the lid and scoop out the seeds and fibers. Sprinkle the inside of each with a pinch of salt. Place the pumpkins and lids on a baking sheet; roast until tender … about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile melt the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion and 1 teaspoon salt, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the squash and sugar and cook, stirring, until glazed, 3 to 4 minutes. Add 4 cups water and 1 cup of chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until the squash is tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

Working in batches, transfer the soup to a blender or food processor, crack the lid to let steam 

escape and puree until smooth; return to the saucepan. Stir in the heavy cream and season with 

salt and curry powder. Pour soup into prepared pumpkin bowls and top with gf croutons, bacon 

and pumpkin seeds.