Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

3 1/2 - 4 lb Butternut Squash
5-6 cups chicken stock
6-8 Tbsp butter
1 1/2 cups diced white onion
4 Tbsp flour
2 tsp hot curry powder
1 cup half and half
lime juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Peel, seed and cut the squash into 1-2 inch cubes.  Heat butter over medium-high heat until melted.  Add onion and sauté for about 5 minutes.  Stir in curry and continue to cook for about 5-6 minutes.  Add cubed squash, salt and pepper and sauté for another 5 minutes.  Sprinkle flour over mixture and incorporate well.  Pour chicken stock into mixture and take care to make sure all the flour is incorporate.  Allow mixture to come up to a boil then reduce heat to medium-low and cover.  Let soup cook for approximately 20-25 minutes, until squash is tender enough to allow a folk to pierce it with little resistance.  At this point the soup can be pureed with an emersion blender, or you can remove the solids and place them in a blender along with 2 cups of the broth, and puree mixture until smooth (if using a blender return puree to pot).  Stir in the half and half.  At this point you will not want to let the soup boil again.  The soup can be held over low heat until ready to serve.  Once ladled into bowls you can garnish each with about 1-2 tsp of fresh lime juice.  Serve and enjoy!!