Coconut milk, cumin, garam masala, curry powder and cilantro balance the sweetness of the roasted red kuri squash, creating this aromatic Indian inspired soup. Serve this with a piece of garlic naan and you have yourself a meal.
Roasted Red Kuri Coconut Curry Soup
Roasted Red Kuri Coconut Curry SoupThis Indian soup pairs perfectly with some roasted chickpeas and a sweet Indian Mango Lassi smoothie, or even as an appetizer for Skinny Chicken Tikka Masala.
You ever buy a vegetable and wonder what to do with it?
I do it all the time…
My answer to my red kuri squash purchase was this exotic Indian inspired soup. If you love the flavors of Indian cuisine, you will love this soup.
I cheated with the naan.
Trader Joe’s sells frozen garlic naan that only takes 2 minutes to heat up. I’ve had requests to create a naan recipe from scratch (I promise I didn’t forget, it’s still on my to do list) but store bought naan worked perfectly fine, they sell naan in most supermarkets nowadays.
I was even thinking of cutting the naan into small squares to create garlic naan croutons, wouldn’t that be cool?
The serving size will slightly vary depending on the size of your kuri squash. Adding chili pepper gives this soup some heat but I’m leaving that optional. Roasted pumpkin, or acorn squash would also work. Added bonus, this is vegan and gluten free!
Roasted Red Kuri Coconut Curry Soup
Ingredients
- 4.25 - 4.5 lbs kuri red squash, I used 2
- 1 tsp coconut oil, or olive oil
- 1/2 tsp roasted cumin
- 1 3/4 tsp garam masala
- 2 1/4 tsp madras curry powder
- 1/2 medium onion, minced
- 2 shallots, minced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup light coconut milk
- 4 cups fat free, low sodium vegetable or chicken broth
- salt and fresh pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- hot chili pepper, diced (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 400°F.
- Using a heavy, sharp knife, cut the squash into quarters.
- Place on a baking sheet and bake for 1 hour.
- When the squash is cooked and cool enough to handle, peel the skin away from the squash flesh. This should make about 3 cups.
- Add oil to a medium soup pot, on medium heat.
- When oil is hot add onion, shallots, chili pepper (if using) and garlic; sauté on low heat until golden.
- Add roasted cumin, masala and madras curry powder and mix well cooking another minute.
- Add broth, light coconut milk, roasted kuri pumpkin and cook covered 20 - 25 minutes.
- Remove cover and using an immersion blender, puree soup until smooth.
- Season with salt and fresh pepper to taste and serve with fresh cilantro.
We grew Red Kuri squash this year and they are easy to grow and taste great !! You can steam them and eat the skin too. They grow fast and the seeds are at the nursery. I am not a winter squash fan but these are good like a sweet potato nice with butter and salt. Make good pies and no need to peel. I am shocked they are not in all grocery stores.
I froze sweet wonderful pumpkin this fall, already cooked and mashed, so I thought I would use that. I looked up pumpkin yield and it says 4 cups cubed is about 1 cup mashed –so my question is for this recipe would you use about a cup of mashed pumpkin or squash.?
Thank you for your wonderful recipes. Couldn’t eat without them!
I just made this soup, it's amazing! I had no cilantro on hand so I used ground coriander instead, adding it with the rest of the spices to the minced vegetables. I also added minced jalapeño. I used one smaller pie pumpkin instead of the two red kuru and ended up with about a cup of extra pumpkin left (yay) for later use. This is one of the best tasting pumpkin soups I've made to date. Thank you Gina!
I received a red kuri squash in my organic box (http://www.theorganicbox.ca) and had no idea what to do with it. This was the easiest and tastiest recipe! Thanks Gina!
I just finished making this, and I am very pleased!
I saved the seeds from the kuri, tossed it with garam masala and olive oil, and roasted them in the oven. They not only taste great but work at a beautiful garnish alongside the cilantro on top of the soup!
I found the kuri squash here in Alberta, Canada at Safeway, but only in the fall, I will buy extra this fall to freeze. Two vegetarians in the family, so love the recipes. Some meat eaters in family love this soup too!
Can you use butternut squash as a substitute, too? Or just acorn squash?
This is on the stove right now and it smells amazing! I love curry and pumpkin so this is perfect!
Unfortunately, looks like kuri is a winter squash and it's summer in Florida. I used acorn squash instead – it was good, but I'd like to try it again with the kuri to see the difference. WOULD NOT recommend using the red chili pepper though! It made it way too hot for us. I used a dollop of Fage fat-free Greek yogurt to neutralize it, but it still burned. Next time, I'll omit the pepper and find that elusive kuri!
Just made this (with pumpkin) and "beefed it up" with 1/2 c rice and 2 TB low fat greek yogurt (per bowl). VERY VERY good and very filling!!
I added the Garlic Roasted Cauliflower into this soup after pureeing it to make it a little heartier and it was so filling and delicious! Just need to cut the cauliflower into bite sized pieces. And I will definitely try making it with the skin on next time for less work!
Thanks for he recipe! It was really yummy. By the way, the second time I made it I left the skin on, chopped it up into chunks, and threw it into the pot to boil. Worked great with less work.
where do you get this kuri red squash? I looked in the grocery stores and they don't have them,and you do remove the seeds before or after you bake it?
If you are using pumpkin can you use organic canned? How much? thanks!
Sure, in a pinch, why not!
Wonderful recipe. I made it ‘as written’, including hot pepper but with pumpkin as I have three of them to use up. Spicy, I love it but some won’t – my hubby doesn’t like spice but loved it anyway (served with sour cream to help him) At least one more pumpkin will go to a second batch.
I am a HUGE fan of your website, but didn't think to check your recipe archives when I bought a red kuri this week. Imagine my surprise (and delight) when I googled "red kuri squash soup" and your site popped up!!
The soup was incredible. So delicious, and so healthy. Thanks!!
Chicken Tikka Marsala is NOT the same as butter chicken Ugh!!!
Who said anything about "butter chicken" ? I thought we were talking about a wonderful soup made from a beautiful red squash!
This soup was amazing! Can't wait to have the left overs 🙂
Thanks for sharing!
I made this tonight and it was delish! I had double the pumpkin, so I froze some. It was nice and spicy for me and I love spice!
Another way is to simply scoop the seeds, cube the kuri and simmer it with broth and coconut milk . I just translated a German recipe similar to this , but with mango dices .Very good .
You do not need to peel a kuri the skin becomes soft when simply simmered with other ingredients .That makes it so perfect.
Use cumin powder, and yes, remove the seeds before.
Susan, so glad you liked it!
This is unbelievably good! I saw the squash at the farmer's market this weekend and made the soup today. (Would never have glanced at the squash had I not seen this recipe; wouldn't have known what to do with them). This is soooooo yummy! Will definitely make again.
This may be a dumb question, but do you remove the seeds and pulp from the squash before roasting it? Also, is the cumin whole cumin or cumin powder?
After, it's a powder.
When you roast the squash, it's easier to remove the seeds after you roast it. Just cut the squash up and roast it… It shows that in the picture that she blogged.
I love squash and love curry – this soup looks right up my alley!! Oooh and I loooove TJ's garlic naan…so delicious!
Red kuri squash is also known as Japanese Squash, Orange Hokkaido Squash or Baby Red Hubbard Squash.
Elle, there is an organic market that sells it near me but I've also seen it at the farmer's market. Any winter squash would work though.
Muffy, no sadly it's not.
Deborah, that's funny, I have a butternut squash soup very similar as well. The flavors works so well with winter squash.
And yes, I love Trader Joe's 🙂
Lyndsay, if you're allergic you can always leave it out, the flavor will be different however.
Lyndsay, you could try almond milk. It won't be as rich, but almond flavors with this would probably work well, then I would also garnish the soup with roasted almonds.
This sounds wonderful! I love Indian flavors. Is there another kind of milk you would suggest? I'm allergic to coconut…
Total yum! I love this recipe! I buy the Trader Joe's Naan Bread too! It's so good and so easy, love that!!
Gina — This is the same recipe that I use to make curried butternut squash soup (not quite as pretty as this one is). I make the naan from the Allrecipes.com website. I always cooked them in the house (I told everyone it was to test the smoke detector) until this last summer when I finally cooked them on the grill as directed. Will never do it any other way. Not only 1000% better but no visits from the fire department. Love your site. Deborah
Well it might still trigger the smoke alarm, but I've made Naan sucessfully with a baking stone.
Alas!!! The naan is not glutin free 🙁
I really love curry. And its a totally new concept for me. And i would love to try it out someday. 😉
Ooohhh I LOVE squash, but I don't think I've ever seen Red Kuri squash before! Your soup looks delicious 😀
My husband loves curry, and I have never really gotten into it until lately. It's wonderful! I bet this would be one yummy soup to warm up a cold day!
I have never heard of Kuri Red Squash?? Where did you find it? Also, don't you love Trader Joes cheats… I sure do!
Mmm …
I might add a little cayenne pepper for kicks (love everything spicy!) and then cool my mouth down with your Mango Lassi recipe!
This looks amazing! I have been wanting to experiment with Kuri squash and you have just inspired me! 🙂
Sounds wonderful!! And that colour is gorgeous… I seem to love all sorts of squashes, however I've never heard of a kuri squash … I'll have to see where I can find them.
Love the idea of a dallop of yogurt!!
You could use any squash but yes, the color is intense!!
Soup seeds, too funny. You should probbaly tried to take the seeds only!
I've never heard of Kuri squash! Sounds super yummy!
I haven't dabbled with curry much but this looks like a good reason to start!
I bought a squash that looked EXACTLY like these, at a vegetable stand in Paris early October of this year, and wanted to bring it home to keep the seeds, dry them out, and grow my own the following year. No dice, the squash was confiscated at the airport because it was on the list of veggies not allowed to be brought into the country. 🙁 I looked it up and it was called a Potimarron.. and is said to taste similar to chestnuts. (Just thought I'd share that with you) Thanks for the lovely recipe!
I would have stuck a seed somewhere – in a used tissue in my pocket or somewhere in my wallet wrapped in a dollar bill – somewhere. My friend's g-mother came from Russia back in the mid 1800's and was not allowed to bring the heirloom black Russian tomatoes w/her. She put some seeds in her handkerchief and the tomatoes are still going strong -passed from generation to generation. I have some. They're beautiful and so tasty!
I love squash and soup and curry so this is a winner in my book. I think I will stop at the roadside stand today and get a squash and make this tomorrow. Would be lovely with a dollop of greek yogurt on top too. Yummy.
I love curry! This recipe looks amazing. And the color of the soup is GORGEOUS. Good work! 🙂