Spiced Butternut Squash Soup;Diabetes Friendly Thursday.

Creating Recipes with a Cause!I am a proud DFT blogger. To learn about DFT, read this link. To view more DFT recipes, Click here!

Sonal and a group of other dedicated bloggers have started this wonderful initiative called Diabetis Friendly Thursday, where in on Thursdays they post recipes that are appropriate for people with diabetes. I am proud to be a part of this group. I believe that this is a very noble cause as Diabetes is one of the leading health conditions that mankind suffers from and one that causes several morbidities. Diabetes is not only prevalent here in the United States but is showing a steep rise in developing countries like India. The primary cause for this may be the changing lifestyle with less exercise and altered food habits. Let me stop here for now and get back to the recipe at hand, as I tend to get carried away..

This group of dedicated bloggers try to have a theme for each week and this week's theme is Soup. Soup is something that is relatively easy to make, easy to consume for even the elderly, the sick and the debilitated. Soup is comfort food that not only soothes the body but nourishes it. Click here on Sonal's blog Simplyvegetarian777 for the list of all the appetizing soups this week.

I am bringing butternut squash soup. My little girl loved to eat butternut squash as a child. She still does. Butternut squash is abundant during fall and bring them home regularly when in season. Fortunately, these squashes have a long life even when store outside the refrigerator. Recently, when I was going through my pantry, I came across one that my husband had bought towards the end of last year. Well, since it was still very good, I decided to make a basic soup, but with an Indian twist. I spices it a little by adding ginger and instead of adding only black pepper, added green chilli. I didn't have any fresh herbs except cilantro, so went ahead and used cilantro. The end result was a hearty, delicious soup that left me licking the spoon !! I served it with some brown rice, quinoa, Amarnath,flax seed crackers that I had on hand. People who are not calorie-conscious can add a little heavy cream or sour cream to the soup just before serving.

Servings: 2-3 medium bowls

Ingredients:

Butternut squash: 3 cups, peeled and diced
Carrots: 2 small, peeled and diced
Onion: 1 small, diced
Spring onion: 1, diced
Cilantro( coriander leaves), chopped: 2-3 tbsp.
Green chilli: one, chopped
Ginger: 1 inch, minced.
Black pepper: freshly ground, pinch
Salt: as per taste
Vegetable broth: 3 cups
Coconut oil: 1 tbsp ( any cooking oil can be used)

Method:

Heat oil on medium flame in a large pot. Add onions, spring onions, carrots and let them sweat a little until the onions are transparent.

Now add the diced butternut squash, green chilli, ginger, cilantro and sauté for 5 mins.

Now add the vegetable broth , bring it to a book and cover and cook until the butternut squash is tender ( around 20 mins).

Turn off the flame and let it cool down. 

Once cooled down, immerse a hand blender and blend it to the consistency of the soup.You can also blend it in a regular blender.

Heat it before serving and serve it hot with toast, crackers or just plain.It is extremely filling and won't leave you feeling hungry.

Enjoy.

Cooking made easy:

Cutting squashes and gourds is a daunting task to most people. The best thing to do is to peel it using a regular peeler. Once peeled, cutting the soft meat is a breeze!

Tip for healthy living:

Butternut squash is a very nutrition-dense food that is also rich in dietary fiber. It would therefore be perfect for diabetics as it is not only low calorie, fat-free, it is filling and provides a plethora of vitamins and minerals.
Click here for nutrition facts about butternut squash.

Food for thought:

The best things in life are unexpected -because there were no expectations. Eli Khamarov