I find that eating soup makes you feel like you’re doing something good for your body – and that’s good for your soul too! Combine the curried butternut squash soup with a grilled apple and camembert sandwich on a folded wrap, and a salad and you’ve got one very happy body.

I wanted to talk about dairy-free ways of making soups and sauces creamy. Usually I prefer not to use the boxed almond and rice milks to add to soups as they don’t really have a nice flavour and tend to separate when heated. To add flavour and texture to soups, my favourite warm me up foods, there are three different techniques I choose from:

1. Make a nut milk with vegetable stock. Cashews, almonds or pecans are delicious and add wonderful flavour to soups. Use one part raw, shelled nuts, soaked overnight in filtered water (just cover with water and leave) to three parts water or stock in the soup. Grind the soaked nuts in a blender (has to be a high-speed blender like Vita-Mix), then add the liquid and blend until completely smooth. Add to the soup at the end of the cooking to smooth it out.
2. Use dense starchy vegetables. Cut potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash or celery root into 1-inch pieces. Saute in oil in large soup pot with onion, garlic and dried herbs until the vegetables soften (about 15-20  minutes). Puree the mixture in a blender with just enough water or stock to make the right consistency. Return to the pot for an additional 10 to 15 minutes until completely smooth.
3. Use coconut milk. This is the simplest method and one which I use often, especially if I’m making a curried soup like today. For every 6 cups of water or stock add one can of coconut milk. This is also delicious in cream of celery, cream of mushroom or cream of tomato soup.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

1 tbsp olive oil
½ cup chopped onions
2 tsp curry powder (again, Lala’s is my favourite powder)
3 cups vegetable broth
½ cup apple juice
6 cups peeled, cubed butternut squash (if you have time, you could roast a butternut squash and use that – cut in half and cook for 45 minutes at 325 degrees F – make sure that you use parchment paper on the pan!)
1 cup peeled, chopped apples
¼ tsp salt
1/2 can of coconut milk (or you could use pecan milk here and it would be delicious)

 Add oil to large saucepan, heat to medium heat and add onions. Cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add water as necessary to avoid onions sticking to pan. Sprinkle curry powder over onions and mix.

Add vegetable broth, apple juice, squash, and apples. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium and cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes until squash is tender.

Use an immersion blender and puree soup in the pot. Add salt and coconut milk.

 Makes 6-8 servings

Thanks to Vegetarian Times article Ask a Chef?, March 2011