Thai Squash Soup
Replace your pumpkin spiced latte this season with thai squash soup. It screams autumn and is anything but basic. This is also proof that I don’t always neglect the delicious sweet potato.
This soup is rammed full of Thai-inspired flavours and comes with a lil kick to warm ya bones. Feel free to up the chilli factor, or remove it entirely if you’re one of those people who needs a glass of milk with a chicken korma. I love to sprinkle extra fresh chillis on top to make the dish really POP.
I used confit garlic oil in this recipe as it’s incredible and everyone needs a jar in their kitchen. You can find my recipe here. It’s one of those things you make then never look back as it’s so versatile and gives your garlic a sweeter, creamier and condensed flavour that is truly delicious.
Don’t panic if you’re missing some of the spices listed below, but the more you have the quicker you’ll feel like you’re actually in Thailand.
Ingredients
- 1 large squash - you can use any variety!
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 2 tbsp confit garlic oil
- 1 red onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp Thai 7 spice
- ½ tbsp tsp garlic granules
- 2 tsp chilli powder
- 1 stick lemongrass
- 1 tbsp grated galangal (or ginger if you can’t find galangal)
- 4 pints chicken stock
- 2 star anise
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1 tin full fat coconut milk (none of this reduced fat rubbish)
- 1 lime
- 1 tbsp desiccated coconut
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
Method
- Cut your squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Drizzle the whole sweet potatoes and the halved squash with the garlic oil and season well with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven on 200ºc/400ºf until cooked through.
- Slice up your onion and fry off in a glug of oil in a large saucepan. Crush in your garlic, then throw in the 7 spice, garlic granules and chilli powder and fry off until the spices are fragrant.
- Scoop the flesh from the squash and the insides of the sweet potatoes into the pan. Chuck the star anise and cinnamon sticks on top, then pour the chicken stock and coconut milk over everything and give it a good stir.
- Allow to cook for 30-45 minutes until everything is soft and cooked through. Remove the whole spices and season well, squeezing in half of the lime juice too.
- Blend with a hand blender until smooth and give a final taste for seasoning. Serve up in bowls and top with a sprinkle of desiccated coconut and some toasted sesame seeds.