My favorite thing about this soup is the texture, and I don't even mean the textural difference added by all that pretty stuff on top. Sometimes butternut squash soup ends up a bit baby-food-y, and that's certainly not the case here. It's thin and silky, rather than thick and velvety. (I know that's a pretty common descriptor for food, but I just imagined a mouthful of velvet and got really weirded out about it.)
The recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne, which is quite a bit and got me suspicious that I wasn't going to agree with the spice mix. It also threw me off that the instructions didn't call for toasting the spices first, trusting they'd lose their raw edge in the few minutes they rumbled around with the squash and peppers.
In the end, I probably should have trusted my judgment. The heat overwhelmed the other spices, so that normally powerful flavors like cinnamon, cumin and curry didn't really come through.
The second most powerful flavor here is added at the end -- grated ginger combined with coconut milk is zingy and creamydreamy but the raw ginger is definitely a kick in the tongue.
Have you noticed I haven't said anything about the flavor of the butternut squash? There's a lot going on here; just check out all this action that comes into play as you're finishing up the soup:
So it's a butternut squash soup that kinda forgets about the butternut squash part. But you know, despite its faults, it was still dang fun to eat. And all four of us scraped the bottom of the bowl with our naan.
Right! Four of us tonight! My friend Ashley, who has been onboard for Soupruary since the first year, is moving to Milwaukee and was gracious enough to grace us with her presence -- what a special memory to share before she leaves us like a big jerk (JK love you, Ashley). My friend Dan came over as well, and brought with him the idea to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of The Ooze. Thanks for helping bolster my deficient early 90s pup culture education, Dan!
Also, oh man I learned something else! How did I go this long without knowing that those pretty, juicy little pomegranate poppers are called "arils"? I harbor a fond memory of my first time eating a pomegranate. I was probably a freshman in high school, rollerblading with my friend Taylor like the totally supercool kids we were. There was a pomegranate tree on the way to my grandparents' house, and Taylor told me he knew the owners of said tree and it would be fine if we took one. I'm actually still not sure if that was true, so in my mind it's the closest I've ever come to stealing anything. We cracked it open on the sidewalk and sat there staining our fingers red and grinning. I haven't talked to Taylor in years, but I think of him every time I break open a pomegranate. It's special, that crazy, mind-teleporting thing that food can do.
Back on track: The pomegranate arils are great here, adding brightness, tartness and texture. The pistachios are nice too, but if I made it again I would toast them up a bit so that they'd hold their crunch a bit better as they sink into the soup.
In summation: it was beautiful, and it was good in a dispassionate thumbs-up sort of way.
Because I think it could be so easily improved with just a few tweaks, I've included my suggestions in the recipe. One last note: You could leave the goat cheese out entirely and make it a still quite decadent vegan meal.
Spiced Butternut Squash Soup with Pistachio and Pomegranate
Serves 4 to 6
Slightly adapted from Half Baked Harvest
Ingredients:
1 head of garlic
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 butternut squash, peeled and cubed (about 4 cups)
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 14 oz. can plus 1/2 cup coconut milk
2 cups vegetable broth
4 oz. goat cheese
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
1/4 cup shelled roasted and salted pistachios
arils from one pomegranate
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
Method:
Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Cut the top 1/4" off the head of garlic and peel away the excess paper. Wrap the head in foil, and roast it for 45 minutes. When done roasting, squeeze the roasted garlic cloves out of their skins and mash them up with a fork.
Meanwhile, heat the coconut oil over medium heat in your soup pot, add the red pepper and cook for 5 minutes.
Take a dry saute pan and heat it up to medium. Put in the cumin seeds and toast them for 45 seconds, then grind them up with a mortar and pestle. Add the rest of the spices to the saute pan and toast them up for 30 to 45 seconds, until they are fragrant.
Add butternut squash and spices to the soup pot and cook for another 5 minutes. Add vegetable broth and 14 oz. of coconut milk. Bring up to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to simmer 20 minutes, or until the butternut squash is cooked through.
Take the saute pan you used for the spices and heat it to medium. Add the pistachios and toast them up for a few minutes.
In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1/2 cup coconut milk and the grated ginger and refrigerate until serving.
To finish the soup, add 3 oz. of goat cheese and the roasted garlic and blend it all up with an immersion blender.
Top each bowl of soup with some pistachios, ginger coconut cream, pomegranate, cilantro and crumbled goat cheese. Really good with naan!
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