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Thai Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Light and creamy, vegan butternut squash soup. This simple butternut bisque is seasoned with Thai red curry paste and swirled with coconut milk. Recipe yields about 6 cups (48 ounces) soup.

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Why it works: Butternut and cumin work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 9 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

48 ounces
Prep15 min
Cook25 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the coconut oil or olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.

  2. Add the garlic, Thai red curry paste, ground coriander, ground cumin and red pepper flakes. Stir for about 1 minute until fragrant.

  3. Add the squash, sea salt and vegetable broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, cover and cook about 15 minutes until the squash is tender.

  4. While the soup simmers, toast the coconut flakes in a dry skillet over medium-low heat, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes until golden. Set aside.

  5. Remove the pot from the heat. Blend the soup until smooth with an immersion blender or in a countertop blender, working in batches if needed.

  6. Stir in the lime juice and taste. Add extra red pepper flakes for more heat if you like (optional).

  7. Ladle the soup into bowls. Drizzle each with coconut milk, then top with the toasted coconut and chopped cilantro. Serve hot.

By cookieandkate. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Butternut + cumintop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together9 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Coriander + limetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Coriander + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,866 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Cumin + limetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,216 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butternut, onion, garlic, coriander, cumin, pepper, lime):

  1. Avocadobetter flavor fit
  2. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  3. Mangoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butternut, onion, garlic, coriander, cumin, pepper, lime. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).