Curried White Squash Soup ~ Thai Inspired

>> Sunday, September 27, 2009

white squash soup
One of the many things I love about living in Europe is that there are different shops that cater to our different culinary needs. There are the markets for your general groceries needs, the butcher shop, the bakeries, the spice shops, the wine shop, and there are fruterias,(in English it's a green grocer and in French they are know as fruiterer). I love all these shops and often walk from shop to shop until I have all that I need for our meal. It has a romantic and nostalgic feeling of times past, and it's a pity that busy lives and schedules don't allow most people to enjoy such simple pleasures. Although I can get fruits and vegetables at the general market I always buy my fruits and vegetables from one or our many local fruterias, the quality and selection is always much better. Having befriended many of the shop attendants helps, they offer me the better quality items and let me know when new fruits or vegetables arrive.
patty pan squashThe other day as I walking past my local fruteria I saw these strange looking white things. I quickly picked it up, felt the hard texture and smelled it, could it be a pumpkin or squash? Unsure of what it was I asked the attendant and he smiled and said "I don't know", we both laughed and he said he would let me know next time. Of course as soon as I came home I Googled it and I found that indeed it is a white squash. Having never tried this before I had to try it immediately. From my search I learned that many people use these in soups, and thought that with a couple of modifications my curried pumpkin soup recipe would work well with this squash.

Your ingredients:
1/2 a small white squash about 400 grams / .88 lbs.
1 large carrots
3 garlic cloves
1/2 tbsp. / 8 ml red curry paste (to your taste)
1/2 tsp. / 2.5 ml salt
1/2 tsp. /2.5 ml turmeric
1 chicken bouillon cube
1/3 cup / 100 ml coconut milk


1. Peel and chop the squash into chunks, peel and cut the carrots into 4 pieces, peel the garlic, then add them all to a pot and cover with enough water jut above the vegetables. Boil for about 15 minutes until the squash and carrots are tender. Drain but reserve the broth.
2. In a blender or mixer add the vegetables and bouillon and spices, blend until it becomes a smooth thick soup puree. You can add a bit of the reserved broth just to make it smoother, but not to watery.
3. Add your soup back to the pot and add the coconut milk, mix and stir until the puree is well combined. Under low heat let it sit covered for another 10 minutes to get all the flavours and spices combined. Taste for salt.

Serve warm with some crusty bread as a light meal or serve before a main course.

curried squash soup

14 comments:

Best Wishes, Marie September 27, 2009 at 8:40 PM  

that squash is called "patty pan." i love your blog. thanks for your efforts, marie.

Divina Pe September 28, 2009 at 1:43 AM  

I've never seen a white squash but I've seen it now on your blog. I love Thai flavors too and this soup is just perfect for a rainy day. The soup looks beautiful and inviting. Thanks.

penny aka jeroxie September 28, 2009 at 8:14 AM  

White squash. This first I've seen! But taste lovely especially with coconut milk used.

Jessie September 28, 2009 at 9:18 AM  

I have not seen white squash until I came to read your entry. I'm loving all of the robust flavors going on in the soup very warming and comforting!

Nancy September 28, 2009 at 9:29 AM  

Best Wishes, Marie- Thank you, I did see that it looked like a patty pan but I didn't write that name because this was a very large squash and what I understood of patty pans was that they were very small. Is it still a patty pan if it's about 2 lbs/ 1 kilo?

Divina - It was perfect on a chilly day.

Penny- The coconut milk gave it such a lovely and creamy taste that without it, it wouldn't have not been as good.

Alina September 29, 2009 at 5:17 AM  

What a nice idea of adding some coconut milk to your squash soup! As you might have noticed I'm a big fan of creamy soups, so I'll save this recipe - I'll just have to check if we have anything like white squash here. I happen to live in a corner of Europe where only very basic ingredients can be found :-/

Nancy September 29, 2009 at 3:54 PM  

Hi Alina,
I can relate to that too, especially with finding traditional Mexican ingredients. I don't know for sure what you could substitute this squash with, but I would guess any that it bland to start with and that is easy to cook with. I have another creamy curried soup that I make with pumpkin, but the taste was different. I will post that recipe soon too :)

Tasty Eats At Home September 30, 2009 at 9:08 AM  

I don't think this was a patty pan, especially if it resembled a winter squash (hard outer shell). But whatever kind of squash it was, I love it! (I love squash - pumpkin, butternut, delicata, you name it!) And this soup sounds lovely. I have a huge pumpkin at home, maybe I need to dedicate it to soup!

Nancy September 30, 2009 at 9:13 AM  

Hi Alta (Tasty Eats At Home),
Thanks, it seems like the name of this lovely squash still alludes me:),either way it was delicious. I am with you I too love all types of squash, and try new ones as I find them.

Erica October 3, 2009 at 9:21 AM  

Wow! Beautiful flavors in that soup. Great pictures.

Nancy October 3, 2009 at 3:38 PM  

Hi Erica,

Thank you , Thank you !:)

chow bella May 17, 2010 at 7:31 PM  

I've never seen white squash before! That looks amazing. Will have to try!

Nancy May 18, 2010 at 9:13 AM  

Hi Cassandra,

I hope you do try it soon, it was really good. Maybe you'll get lucky and find the white squash too :)

Swiss Family Bolton August 8, 2010 at 7:16 AM  

I am an expat in Switzerland, and after a trip to the farmers' market a few weeks ago, I have one of these enormous gourds in my refrigerator. Thanks for prep suggestion.

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