Thai Butternut Squash Soup

This is a great winter warming soup and balances the wonderful sweet, sour and hot flavours of Thai food.

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   Many of the ingredients here are found in Asian supermarkets, but our regular supermarkets will have a good substitute if you do not have an Asian store nearby.
   
   Recommended substitutions:
   a) use root ginger instead of galangal,
   b) use the green coriander stems if you can not find coriander bunches with white roots,
   c) fresh kaffir lime leaves are best, but freeze dried ones can be found in spice jars in most larger supermarkets - they're fine if you refresh them in very hot water first
   
   
   
   1. Using a large stockpot, fry the onion, garlic, chilli, galangal (or root ginger), lemongrass and coriander roots in the butter until the onion softens (try not to let it go brown).
   
   2. Add the vegetable stock and coconut milk and gently bring to the boil.
   
   3. Add the squash, bring back to the boil then simmer the whole lot until you can get the tip of a knife through the squash easily.
   
   4. Blitz everything in a blender - only put as much of the liquid in to get the consistency you prefer (I tend to prefer my soups very smooth and not so watery).
   
   5. Stir through the coriander leaves, kaffir lime leaves and fish sauce. Then add lime juice to taste (salt and pepper to taste too if you want).
   
   6. Enjoy, and you can freeze any leftovers.