Squash & Coconut Soup

The night before my volunteer farming duties officially started at Pennypack, I was given a tour of the grounds. Toward the end of the tour I was shown a very large, very tall area of weeds dubbed something like “the squash beds.” I didn’t think too much about it, other than for an otherwise unremarkable weed patch the weeds seemed remarkably healthy.

I guess the squash were robust too because, as I later learned, the snakey squash vines plain busted out of their their narrow beds, fruit bursting off any old place. The area couldn’t be weedwacked in fear of clipping a renegade squash vine, so the weeds were allowed to grow as wild as the squash.

The task of harvesting the squash itself was a guerrilla-like operation. The harvesters (that’s me!) waded through uneven ground stomping back heavy weeds to procure our bounty, rather like Che Guevara and pals went searching through South America for socio-economic inequities. Or something like that. It was poetic, trust me. Imagine stumbling upon a startlingly red kuri squash or a blue hubbard as big as a small child. Pretty dramatic.

What I acquired from all this, other than a refreshed love for this humble fruit and a scratched pair of forearms, was the knowledge that my co-harvesters cherish squash soup above all foods. So come Friday, my last day at the farm, the squash wrangled and my duties done, I decided that my final lunch at the farm would be something I was sure everyone would love.

Serves: 5 as a side dish
Time: 1.5 hours for baking the squash, 20 minutes to prepare

Squash & Coconut Soup

1 large butternut squash
1/2 jalapeno, minced (can be deseeded)
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 inch fresh ginger, minced
small handful basil, chopped (preferably Thai basil)
small handful mint, chopped
small handful cilantro, chopped
1/2 - 1 can coconut milk, well mixed
salt to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cut the butternut squash in half legnthwise and place it cut side down on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake for an hour to an hour and a half, or until tender. Let cool.

Once the squash is cool enough to handle, cut the flesh away from the skin. Discard the skin.

Toss the jalapeno, garlic, ginger, basil, mint, and cilantro in a blender. Pour in a bit of the coconut milk and blend well. Add the squash and enough coconut milk to blend into a liquid, about 3/4 of a can for a medium butternut squash. You may need to blend in batches if your squash is big and your blender is small.

Heat the soup on the stove until at a low simmer. Add more coconut milk or water if the soup needs to be thinned down.

Serve in individual bowls and garnish with a sprig of mint, basil, cilantro, or a thin slice of jalapeno.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 7:43 pm and is filed under Soups & Stews, Harvest, Autumn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.