Curried Butternut Squash Soupwith spinach salad / apples / pomegranate seeds
A pinch of curry and ginger bring out the flavor in a simple, smooth butternut squash soup. Serve this well-loved cool weather soup with a tangy spinach salad that is tossed with apples, cashews and crunchy pomegranate seeds.
Ingredients
- Squash, butternut, large - 1, peeled and cubed
- Onions, small - 1, chopped
- Ginger, fresh (opt) - 2 tsp, grated
- Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp
- Curry powder, mild yellow (opt) - 1/2 tsp
- Stock, any type - 4 cups
- Sugar, brown - 1 tsp
- Sour cream (sub plain yogurt), for serving - 1/4 cup
- Cashews, roasted and unsalted - 1/2 cup, roughly chopped
- Pomegranate seeds (opt) (look for these already removed from their shell in the refrigerated produce section) - 1/2 cup
- Apples, any variety - 1, sliced
- Vinegar, balsamic - 1 Tbsp
- Maple syrup - 2 tsp
- Mustard, Dijon - 1 tsp
- Oil, olive - 3 Tbsp
- Spinach, baby - 5 oz
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Squash / Onions / Ginger / Cashews - Prep as directed. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Pomegranate - If you couldn't find them already seeded, follow instructions in this video to seed pomegranate. (Can be done up to 3 days ahead)
- Apples - Slice.
Make
- Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add cooking oil and then ginger, onions and curry powder to heated oil with a generous pinch of salt. Saute until onions are soft, ~2 minutes. Add squash cubes and saute until the outsides begin to brown, ~3 minutes. Add stock and sugar and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to a simmer and cover with the lid. Simmer until squash is tender, ~15 minutes.
- While soup simmers, make vinaigrette by combining vinegar, maple syrup, mustard and olive oil. Season with some salt and pepper. Toss spinach with vinaigrette, apple slices, pomegranate seeds and cashews.
- After soup has simmered and squash is tender, puree with an immersion blender (like in this video) or transfer to a blender in batches. Puree until smooth. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper.
- Ladle soup into bowls and top with sour cream. Serve with salad on the side and enjoy!
Reviews
This meal has 47 reviews
I made '8 servings', used 2 med/large squash. I roasted the squash, prior to adding to rest. Used 4c stock, added more after blending for consistency. Added ample curry powder to cover onions/ginger. For salad, also used arugula with spinach as had on hand. Added a bit of goat cheese, and used 2x different apples. Dressing was very tasty.
Soup didn't have the kick I was hoping for since it was called a curried soup. May try again adding a lot more curry powder. I had a large squash so perhaps that was part of the problem.
I have only made the salad so far, but it is my favorite CookSmarts salad so far! (Did not include pomegranate seeds)
Roasted the squash instead, I think it is easier to clean it, and when it caramellizes it tastes so much better. All the kids loved the salad too, that doesn't happen very often :).
Definitely needs salt!
Could not find pomegranate seeds, or whole pomegranates, in two stores, so I gave up (guess it's the end of the season now). I chopped the squash in my food processor so the pieces were smaller than cubes, and although it didn't really cut down on the cooking time, the prep was faster. This soup really needs the sour cream at the end; I ended up doubling the curry powder and added more salt and pepper, it was kind of 'meh' til then but the sour cream did the trick. Made the croutons from the vegetarian version and should have toasted them longer, but saved $$ by not buying them (we don't usually have croutons anyway). Added a nice cheese bread on the side and it was great to dip.