I eat soup for dinner at least one to two times every week (here’s why) and there are quite a lot of soup recipes on my blog. That said, it’s been a while now since featuring my favorite supper. Enter today’s dish, which was originally created during a marathon cooking day when I was preparing several different varieties to send my sister for the holidays (“the gift of soup”). While roasted squash soup of any kind is delicious on its own, when it gets together with fabulous Thai ingredients the result is a luscious meal that’s loaded in nutrition and filling enough to warrant the starring place at the dinner table. Below is the how-to and some health notes on why it’s so good for you.
Additional Cooking Notes
Any kind of squash could be used in this soup if you don’t want to use pumpkin—although it’s really fun to roast them, and here’s how. This soup is similar in style to my Vietnamese noodle soup, so if you like this dish it’s worth looking at that post because you’ll see the recipes are in fact different. Today’s version is simpler, using dried curry powder and a few other classic spices while the Vietnamese soup brings in several more traditional ingredients (e.g., lemongrass, lime juice, tamarind, etc). Finally, do keep in mind that depending on what squash(es) you use, you might need a touch of sugar to adjust the balance. After my soup sat for a few hours and I retasted it, I decided to add a little honey to complete the dish (agave is also fine for a vegan version); it really was needed since pumpkins are less sweet than, say, butternut squash.
Whatever squashes you choose and whichever of the recipes you use to bring the beautiful tastes of South East Asia to you table, playing around with these fantastic spices—the key to great cooking—is sure to bring a lot of joy into your next soup.
Dr. P. K. Newby is a nutrition scientist and educator with expertise in the prevention of obesity and chronic diseases through diet and the relations between agriculture, food production, and public health. She is currently training for the Boston Marathon, her third (more here, and here). She brings together her passions for food, cooking, science, and sustainability through her writing and videos to help people eat their way towards better health, one delectable bite at a time. If you like what you see here at The Nutrition Doctor is In the Kitchen, please subscribe to my blog from the home page, become a fan on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, check out my food porn on Pinterest, watch my cooking videos on YouTube, and peruse my recipe page for soups, salads, seafood, sweets, and more. Thanks for reading!
On a brisk fall day in October, I gathered vegetables, fruits, herbs, oils, and vinegars and headed down to the Rose Kennedy Greenway for the 
Beyond all that, it’s one of my husband’s favorite flavors, so I made up a quart last week as a special treat for him while I was out of town. I’m excited to share this recipe with you, as we both agreed this is one of the best ice creams I’ve ever made.
I can’t quite remember how or when I was first introduced to the notion of a radish sandwich, so I would not be surprised if you, too, found it unusual. It is popular fare in France, however, where French breakfast radishes are simply
Today’s recipe is another way to enjoy a few fall favorites like butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, and fresh cranberry beans. Throw in a few sweet scallops and drizzle with a maple dijon vinaigrette and you’ve got one more dish in your repertoire to celebrate autumn’s glorious flavors.
What are you, ten? It’s time to bring your palate into adulthood and the 21st century. These are fantastic, healthy foods that are really tasty if prepared the right way. Roasting brings out flavors—these sprouts are caramelized, crispy, and sweet—and a zesty maple dijon vinaigrette brings all the ingredients together beautifully. Give it a chance, friend. Give it a chance. (And that generally means more than once as your palate adjusts to new tastes.) For the how-to and nutrition notes, check out the following posts:
After roasting and simmering, toss the non-scallop ingredients together in a bit of vinaigrette before plating. Y
Remember that it’s always about options when it comes to 
I honestly couldn’t tell you which I preferred. If I had to choose I’d probably say the original. There are a lot of big flavors already so adding nuts and cheese did become a little distracting, as I speculated, and it just wasn’t necessary, especially when served with soup. Nuts and cheese add calories, which is another good reason to watch your intakes if you’re trying to lose or maintain weight. Yes, they can still be consumed as part of a healthy diet—particularly nuts—but I’ll admit there was a time I put cheese on almost every salad I made (that is to say, just about every day). This is a bad habit I’ve since broken. It’s better to focus your salads around healthier plant foods, obviously: it should not be a cheese delivery vehicle. And make sure to use lots of greens, too, which add fiber, water, nutrients, and texture to balance the starchier squash and sweet cranberries. It’s hard to see the hefty bed of lettuce in the plated salad pictures, but there actually is a lot of it there, and it makes a difference.
