Creamy Curried Butternut Squash Soup

When the temperature drops I start craving soup. Combine that with the abundance of squash at the grocery store and it means squash soup at our house!

















I saw this on Kira's blog and immediately wanted to make it. The relatively small amount of cream makes makes the texture really creamy without adding tons of fat, and the beans add some protein.



















This soup freezes well and made a great lunch for me to take to school. Of course, my fear of our old crock pot (it lacks a safety shut off feature) meant that we made it in the dutch oven on the stove top. It took a little longer to do it that way, but only because we had to roast the squash first. And bonus - I figured out how to use the immersion blender without creating a fierce suction that sent a gentle spray of soup all over the kitchen.

Creamy Curried Butternut Squash Soup
from Cook Pray Love

Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and chopped into cubes
• 1 quart vegetable or chicken broth
• 1 can lite coconut milk
• 4 cups navy beans (or 3 cans, drained and rinsed)
• 2 celery stalks, chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp yellow curry powder
• 1/2 tbsp garam masala
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1/3 cup whipping cream*

Preparation
Combine everything but cream in a large crockpot. Set to low and simmer for 6 hours. Then stir in cream and blend with an immersion blender in the crockpot until smooth.

You can also spoon it into a regular blender to blend it, but be careful that it doesn’t explode all over your kitchen.

Serve with shredded cheddar cheese and yogurt to top, if desired.

*Do they make a decent non-dairy cream? If so, these easily could be made vegan.