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Tis the season for squash and pear! These two pals of fall work beautifully together in this creamy, lightly spicy, gingery soup.
When I first posted this recipe years ago, I suggested roasting a halved butternut squash first, to get make purée as the base for the soup. That works, but you are left with an excess of squash purée, and sometimes it’s just easier to start with pre-cut butternut squash.
So, in this revised version, I’m browning pre-cut cubed squash in olive oil and butter, then cooking onions with spices, and then adding chopped pears, before adding back the squash and stock to make the soup.
Pears and ginger love each other, so I’m adding a little ground ginger for some zing, as well as a splash of nutmeg.
The soup is similar to a spicy pumpkin soup also here on Simply Recipes, but with a distinctive pear flavor. You can add a thin slice of Bartlett pear to each serving, or cut up a pear in small pieces and mix them into the soup for added sweetness.
Craving more squash soup recipes?
Curried Squash and Pear Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 cups cubed butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon butter
- 1 medium onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 2 1/2 teaspoons yellow curry powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- Pinch of nutmeg
- 2 cups peeled, chopped Bartlett pear (about 1 pound, 3 pears)
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 cup pear nectar
- 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock (use veg stock for vegetarian option)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 small Bartlett pear, cored and thinly sliced
Method
1 Sauté the butternut squash: Heat 2 Tbsp olive oil and 1 teaspoon butter in a large, thick-bottomed pot on high heat. Add half of the cubed butternut squash. Toss to coat with the oil. Let cook until lightly browned on several sides.
Remove with a slotted spoon to a bowl. Repeat with the remaining butternut squash. Remove to a bowl.
2 Cook the onions and spices: Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the pot. Add the chopped onion. Lower the heat to medium and cook for a few minutes to soften.
Then add the curry powder, ground ginger, and nutmeg. Cook for a few minutes more.
3 Add the chopped pear, and toss to coat. Cook for a minute more.
4 Add water, stock, pear nectar, salt, pepper, then simmer: Add the browned butternut squash to the onion pear mixture. Add the water, stock, pear nectar, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil on high heat; partially cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes.
5 Purée: Purée using a stick blender or if using a standing blender, purée a third of the soup at a time.
If the soup is too thick for you, add a little water to thin it. If it is too thin for you, bring it to a boil and let it boil down a bit.
6 Add cream: Turn off heat. Stir in 1/4 cup of cream.
Ladle soup into bowls, and garnish with pear slices.
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Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Curried Squash and Pear Soup
Elise, I’d love to make this but I cannot stand yellow curry powder. What would you suggest I substitute … I can tolerate red curry but not the yellow! Would red curry powder work? Thanks!
I’ve been making the original version for years and absolutely love it. Cooking isn’t my favorite but I love this soup. Can’t wait to try the newer version!
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Excellent! I loved this soup. The texture, even without the cream, is like silk. The flavor is wonderful. The recipe is easily adaptable. The aromatics are versatile. Since I’m not a big fan of curry, I subbed a 2-inch knob of grated fresh ginger for the curry powder which gave the soup some “heat”. I added a few parsnips, some fresh thyme and a tbsp of maple syrup. Instead of sauteeing the squash on the stove, I roasted it in the oven for about 20 minutes, then added the pears, quartered, and roasted both for an additional 20 minutes. We prefer a thick soup, so I didn’t add the 1 1/2 cups of water, and the consistency was perfect. The pear nectar is a delicious addition. I reduced mine by 1/3 first. The soup freezes well without compromising the taste or the texture.
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Could canned coconut milk be used instead of heavy cream?
Hi, Brenda! Yes, I think coconut milk would be quite nice in this recipe! If you try it, please let us know how you like it!
I made mine a little thicker since I didn’t add the pear nectar. I also only used water instead of broth to control the salt content (we’re trying to be very careful of sodium in our diet) and I added some extra spicy!
It was delicious!
Ali Enza
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