Kick the Cold with this Thai butternut soup! Want something delicious, warm and a hearty meal? This Thai butternut soup is up to challenge the senses to new heights and guaranteed to warm you up during the cold of winter!

As with any recipe, tweak the ingredients to what flavours you’re looking for.

• Prep time: 60 – 75mins
• Serves: 5 people (4 if you want a little more in the bowl).
• Wine pairing: Viognier or a high acidity Chardonnay (friend recommendations)

Ingredients

• 2 Whole butternuts
• 10 glugs of olive oil (what is a glug? The noise that the bubble makes as it goes into the olive oil bottle as it’s being poured)
• 2 Cans of Thai Coconut Milk
• 1/2 Green Thai Curry paste
• 8 garlic cloves – finely chopped
• 2 Yellow Onions
• 2 “Thumbs” worth of ginger. Not sure what size that is? Look at your thumb….that size.
• 1/2 Lemon Grass stick
• 1 Lime
• 2 tbsp fish sauce (might need more/less depending on what you’re looking for). Don’t like fish sauce? Mix it up with soya sauce or just regular salt.
• 1 Thai Chili (add more for a zinger soup)
• Cilantro for garnish
• Emergency ingredients – honey, fish sauce (or salt or soya sauce), limes

Cooking Utensils

• 1 Immersion blender
• 1 Microwave
• 1 Large pot
• 1 sharp knife
• 1 Chopping board

Food Preparation

1. Slice the butternut into bite-size chunks and remove the skins. Make sure that you remove the seeds as well.
2. Put the butternut chunks into to a dish where you can steam them in the microwave. Steaming them should take about 10minutes per butternut.
3. Finely chop the garlic and put aside for later use.
4. Finely chop the ginger and put aside for later use.
5. Remove the outer few layers of the onion and slice each onion into halves, then slices, then halves again. Don’t worry about keeping the onions the right/uniform size (the immersion blender will destroy any remnants of an onion shape). Repeat with the next onion too.
6. Slice up the lemon grass into small amounts. This doesn’t have to be precise. The immersion blender will fix that.

Soup – Phase 1

1. Put the butternut chunks into a dish to roast/grill.
2. Pour 5 glugs of the olive oil over each of the steamed butternuts. Use a spoon to coat all of the butternut with the olive oil.
3. Roast the butternut in oven at 410°F (210°C) until its getting just more than slightly golden (45 – 60mins).
4. On high heat, combine the onions, garlic and ginger in the large pot. Keep stirring the ingredients to make sure they don’t burn.
5. Change the temperature to medium teat.
6. Add the lemon grass into the mixture
7. Smelling the fragrance of the ingredients? Add the green curry paste (kudos if you made your own!). Keep stirring to make sure it doesn’t burn!
8. Fragrant green Thai curry paste smells gracing your nostrils?? Add the 2 cans of coconut milk. You might need to shake them up a little. Make sure you get all of the coconut milk out of the can.
9. Keep stirring the mixture until the coconut milk turns green.
10. If the butternut hasn’t become slightly golden, turn the heat on the pot to low/off.

At this point contemplate the meaning of life, happiness, how you got here. Do you know what your intention is? Do you know what you want to do for the next 5 years? Enough contemplating? (and assuming the butternut is ready).

Soup – Phase 2

11. When the butternut chunks are ready, add it into the pot.
12. Turn up the heat to medium.
13. Stir the butternut into the mixture until it’s properly coated.
14. Add the Thai chili’s now.
15. (For the garnish, chop up some cilantro and some fresh red Thai chili’s.
16. When the mixture begins to start bubbling (small bubbles), you can turn off the heat.
17. Now you get to have fun with the immersion blender! Immerse the immersion blender and begin to start pureeing the mixture.
    
    BE CAREFUL not to lift the immersion blender to the surface…it’ll splatter the soup everywhere and you could burn yourself.
18. Once pureéd, squeeze the lime into the soup and thoroughly mix.
19. Once you’ve balanced your flavours – dish up and garnish with the cilantro and red Thai chili’s.
20. Your Thai butternut soup is ready to be enjoyed! Bon Appétit!

Help! I broke my soup!

• Soup is too salty (not sure why – we didn’t add any salt)? Add some more lime/honey.
• Soup is too acidic (from the limes/lemon grass)? Add some more honey.
• Soup is too sweet? Add some more lime or salt (fish sauce).