Butternut Squash, Chilli & Coconut Soup from Cooking Them Healthy
Sometimes all we need is a bowl of warming, homemade soup. There’s something rather lovely about coming in from a chilly day outdoors and sitting down to a bowl of something warm. Even better when little hands have helped to make it!
Cooking together is a brilliant family activity. It gives children the chance to get involved, learn new skills and enjoy the satisfaction of creating something delicious from scratch. And there’s something particularly special about sitting down together afterwards to eat what you’ve made.
So, if you're looking for a quick and comforting lunch or light dinner, why not give this Butternut Squash, Chilli & Coconut Soup from Cooking Them Healthy a try? It's wonderfully creamy, naturally sweet, gently warming and can be thrown together in no time.
Why we love this soup
Butternut squash is the star of the show here. Its naturally sweet, creamy flesh makes it a great ingredient for family cooking, and it gives the soup its gorgeous golden-orange colour. The recipe also combines warming ginger and chilli with creamy coconut milk, creating a lovely balance of sweet, spicy and comforting flavours. For little ones, you can keep the chilli very mild — or leave it out altogether if they prefer. If you're cooking for the whole family, it's easy to adjust the seasoning and spice to suit everyone.
Butternut Squash, Chilli & Coconut Soup
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
- 1 clove garlic, crushed and finely mashed
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 small butternut squash, peeled and chopped into roughly 1-inch chunks
- 1 small mild chilli, finely chopped
- 250ml vegetable or chicken stock
- ½ can coconut milk (approximately 200ml)
- A little coconut oil, for cooking
- Chopped coriander and a sprinkle of paprika, to serve (optional)
A note about the chilli
Chillies can vary enormously in heat, even when they're labelled as mild. If children are helping, an adult can taste a tiny piece first to check the heat level before adding it to the soup. You can always add less chilli to begin with — it's much easier to add a little more later! And if your little explorers aren't fans of spice, simply leave it out. The soup will still be delicious.
Let's get cooking!
1. Soften the onion
Melt a little coconut oil in a medium saucepan and add the chopped onion. Cook gently until the onion has softened. This is a great job for a grown-up, while little helpers can get involved with measuring the other ingredients.
2. Add the ginger and garlic
Next, add the crushed garlic and grated ginger. Give everything a good stir and cook for no more than a minute, taking care not to let the garlic burn. This is when your kitchen should start smelling rather wonderful!
3. Add the squash and chilli
Add your chopped butternut squash and finely chopped chilli to the pan. Give everything a really good stir so that the squash gets coated in all those lovely flavours. Then pour in the stock.
4. Let it bubble away
Put the lid on the saucepan and leave everything to cook for around 10–15 minutes, or until the butternut squash is completely tender. You can test it by carefully poking a piece with a fork. It should be soft enough to blend easily. This is a good moment to get the bowls ready and perhaps encourage your little chefs to lay the table.
5. Blend until smooth
Remove the pan from the heat. Using a hand blender, carefully pulse the soup until smooth and creamy. This is definitely a grown-up job. Hot soup and little hands aren't a good combination! If you don't have a hand blender, you can carefully transfer the soup to a suitable blender, following the manufacturer's instructions for blending hot liquids.
6. Add the coconut milk
Finally, stir in the coconut milk. Look at that colour! The coconut milk makes the soup beautifully creamy and adds a subtle sweetness that works wonderfully with the squash, ginger and chilli.
Time to serve
Ladle the soup into bowls and finish with a sprinkling of chopped coriander and paprika, if you fancy. For grown-ups, a little pinch of salt can be added to taste. Serve with a chunk of warm, crusty bread for dunking — because let's face it, no bowl of soup is complete without something delicious to dip into it!
Get the little ones involved
This recipe is simple enough to make a lovely family cooking activity. Depending on their age, children can help with:
- Washing and preparing ingredients.
- Measuring the stock and coconut milk.
- Picking coriander leaves.
- Stirring ingredients with adult supervision.
- Helping to set the table.
- Choosing their favourite bowl.
- Sprinkling a little paprika over the finished soup.
Cooking is also a wonderful opportunity to introduce children to new ingredients. Let them smell the fresh ginger, look at the different colours and textures, and talk about where the vegetables come from. And don't worry if things get a little messy. That's all part of the fun!
The perfect post-adventure lunch
We think this soup is especially delicious after a morning spent outside. Head out for a woodland walk, splash through some muddy puddles, collect fallen leaves or simply enjoy a blustery afternoon in the garden. Then come home, warm up and tuck into a bowl of homemade soup. There's something wonderfully satisfying about it.
Cold cheeks, muddy boots, rosy noses and warm bowls of soup. Now that's our kind of family day. So gather your little chefs, get chopping and make something delicious together. You might just discover that the best ingredient of all is a little bit of family time.
