Curried Coconut Acorn Squash Soup with Goat Cheese and Black Pepper Biscuits

Johnson Backyard Garden CSA subscribers were lucky enough recently to get several acorn squash in their boxes. I roasted mine and turned them into a coconut acorn squash soup, following a recipe by Barbara Kafka, cookbook author and former food contributor to the New York Times.

Begin by roasting the squash. Unlike when you roast squash to eat on its own, you don't need to dress the squash for this soup -- no oil, no spices, nothin'. Just stick it in the oven and let it cook for 45-60 minutes -- until it is soft enough to pierce with a fork, knife, or toothpick.

Next, saute curry powder in oil for 2 minutes. This is called blooming and is a way to maximize the flavor of dried spices by heating them before adding the ingredients. Add onions and cook until soft and translucent. Add stock, squash and coconut milk and heat through. Now, puree. Tonight, I used my new immersion blender for the first time. And, typical me, I didn't bother reading the instructions (how hard could it be, right?), and this led to lots of splatter on the stove, hood, and all over the sides of the pot. Apologies for the messy pot!

Once heated through, add the lime juice and adjust with salt and pepper. I always recommend the combination of roasted squash with coconut milk and curry, but I wouldn't recommend following this particular recipe. Or, if you follow it, please omit or greatly reduce the lime juice. It's not a typical component to a curried coconut squash soup, and there is probably a reason. If you decide to go ahead and try the lime juice to see what it adds (which is what I did), you can always offset the bitterness of the citrus by increasing other ingredients -- more coconut milk, more squash (if you have it), or even by adding other vegetables.

Comments

Chicken Traybake with Roasted Poblano and Tomato Salsa

This dish is delicious! Easy! And, beautiful to look at! The original recipe calls for you to process all the cooked vegetables together into a chunky salsa, but I recommend serving it as is so you have an automatic side dish. The original also calls for cooking chicken bone-in, but, the more I cook traybakes, the more I advocate for slicing chicken into tenders and cooking boneless. Just a safer bake that way because everything comes to the same temperature at the same time. Chicken Traybake with Roasted Poblano and Tomato Salsa Milk Street 1 T chili powder 2 poblano, stemmed, seeded, chopped 1 yellow onion, root end intact, in 8 wedges 1 pint cherry tomatoes 1/4 c olive oil 1 T brown sugar 1 T oregano, dried 3 lb chicken, bone-in, skin-on, trimmed 10 cloves garlic, peeled 1 T vinegar 1/4 c cilantro, chopped Heat oven to 450. In small bowl, stir together chili powder and 2 tsp salt. In large bowl, toss together pobloanos, onion wedges, tomatoes, and 1 T of the chili-power...

Mayocoba Beans with Green Chiles

I love this dish so much that I can barely stand it. Delicious the night it was made, and fantastic as leftovers throughout the week. Mayocoba beans are easily replaced -- try pintos, if you can't find mayocobas. Mayocoba Beans with Green Chiles Baptism of Fire 3-4 green chiles, roasted and chopped 1 onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, minced 1 T lard or olive oil 1/2 tsp oregano 1 tsp cumin pepper 1 c mayocoba beans, dry 3 c water 1 tsp salt Cook the green chiles, onion, garlic, oregano, cumin, and black pepper in the fat until the onions begin to caramelize. Add the water and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and let the beans sit, uncovered, for an hour. You may drain the water to remove some of the slightly indigestible sugars that cause gassiness. If you decide to drain them, add enough water back into the pot to cover the beans with about 2" of water above the beans for cooking. Bring the beans back to a boil and cook, until tender. This will take...

Curried Chicken Soup

I made this soup so often in the 1990s, but frankly had forgotten about it. Flipping through this cookbook, I found this recipe and was flooded with memories. When I was in grad school, this soup was my "feeling decadent" food and reminded me of something people might eat after hitting the slopes -- a thing I have never done. A few decades long, and with a lot more experience with cooking, I realize that this is basically a chicken curry with a thin sauce and the rice already in the meal -- but don't let that in any way discourage you! It's delicious as is and is a wonderful take on what is otherwise chicken and rice soup. I have become a fan of using rotisserie chickens, especially during the pandemic. They are so cheap, and I can use the meat in a soup like this on the day-of grocery shopping, and, crunch the bones down for the freezer for making stock in the future. Of course, this soup can be made with a fresh chicken, but I have modified the recipe bel...

Donut Army

Search This Blog