The appetizer soup Vrghr featured for his Christmas feast.

Wuff used the instant pot (mutil-cooker) pressure cooker to create this, resulting in very fast, easy, and VERY tasty results. The instant pot pressure cooker reduced the time needed immensely, and locked all the flavors within, creating a luscious, creamy soup packed with flavor.

For those who have worked with Butternut Squash before, you will recall that this veggie is very solid and hard to cut, and also hard to peel in its raw state. Wuff solved that by giving the squash a quick session in the multi-cooker pressure cooker to pre-tenderize it a bit. The result was as simple to peel as an apple, and almost tender enough to cut with a butter knife. And it only took about 6 minutes under pressure to achieve that. Time wuff used to work on other items for the feast, so it made for very efficient kitchen use.

Vrghr did use a fairly large amount of ginger in this soup, resulting in prominent ginger flavor and a marked gingery hot 'kick'. For those who want the squash and carrot flavors to be more forward, reduce the suggested amount of ginger by about half.

The Curry flavor lives in the background, but the aroma hits your nose up front, adding a nice counterpoint and complexity.

Squash and carrot flavors compliment one another. They're quite similar, but different enough to add some nice complexity to the result.

This soup is quite hearty and filling, and would make a good stand-alone dish for a blustery day.

Note: you can substitute Vegetable Stock instead of the Chicken Stock for a lacto-vegetarian (contains dairy) version.

Note 2: This recipe creates a medium thick soup. If you like thicker results, reduce the chicken (or veggie) stock to 5 cups. You can also start with the 5 cups, and add more stock when blending the soup to reach desired thickness.

INGREDIENTS:
1 Butternut Squash
3 Carrots, sliced into chunks
1 medium white or yellow Onion, sliced
1 1/2 (thumb length) section of Ginger root, peeled and minced finely
2 TBS butter
5-6 C Chicken Broth or Stock (Or sub Veggie stock for a lacto-vegetarian version)
1 C Heavy Cream
1 heaping tsp Curry Powder
1/2 tsp Garam Masala
1/8 tsp Salt
(Optional: cilantro for garnish)

Immersion Blender
Instant pot/multi-cooker pressure cooker

DIRECTIONS:
Pre-cook the squash
Lop the stem end off the butternut squash and carefully split it down the middle. Remove the seeds and fibers.
Place in the cooker with 1 C water. If necessary, cut the squash to fit

Bring to pressure and cook for about 6 minutes. Release pressure (vent).

Allow the squash to cool enough to handle. Then peel and cut into large chunks

Make the soup
Peel and cut the carrots into chunks. Slice the onion into thin slices. Peel the ginger root and slice very thinly, then finely mince up the slices

Pour any water out of the instant pot. Set the pot to Brown/Saute mode and add the butter. When the butter becomes foamy, add the onions and the minced ginger. Cook until the onions are becoming translucent and the ginger is fragrant. Sprinkle in the curry powder and garam masala and cook another minute to bloom the flavors of the curry spices

Add the chicken (or veggie) stock, carrots, and squash. Cover and set the cooker to (high) pressure mode. Cook at high pressure for 8 minutes. Release pressure (vent) and remove top

Using immersion blender, blend the soup to a very creamy consistency. Stir in 1 C of heavy cream

Ladle into heated bowls. Garish with a drizzle of heavy cream, a tiny pinch of curry powder, and (optionally) some bits of cilantro

!DEVOUR!