Creamy Chayote Soup

Chayote soup is a favorite of mine. It’s healthy yet super creamy in flavor. The great part is, there’s no cream, just a little butter.

You need a good blender for this recipe. I use my Vitamix, which works very well. The soup comes out nice and smooth. An immersion blender might work well enough for this recipe too.

Many chayote soup recipes say to peel the chayote. I don’t. It’s not necessary. You won’t notice the peel in the flavor. Many people have a reaction to raw chayote while peeling it, causing irritation to the skin. If you peel yours, wear gloves!

Start out by chopping the chayote into 1 inch chunks. Set aside.

In a large saucepan, melt butter, then add onions, garlic and crushed red pepper. Saute until onion is clear. Add the chayote and cilantro. Add salt and pepper for taste. Saute for about five minutes.

Add broth and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 20 minutes or until chayote is tender.

Blender time! I scoop the chayote out of the liquid with a slotted spoon or bamboo skimmer, and put it into the blender first, then pour the remaining liquid in. This feels much easier than trying to control the whole thing while pouring hot liquid. No worries about the chunks getting out of control if you do it this way.

You do not need to use all of the liquid in the blender. All you need is enough liquid to make it blend. Blend until smooth.

If you want to bring this recipe up a level for meat lovers, add in some cooked bacon. Bacon does something nice for the flavor. It’s not necessary, but it is good! Add it in when you start cooking the chayote.

It’s easy to make this soup vegan if you prefer. Just use oil in place of butter, and vegetable stock in place of chicken stock.

This is a very filling soup. A bowl of it can almost be a meal by itself.

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Creamy Chayote Soup

Ingredients

• 2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
• 1 tbsp butter or extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion diced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• crushed red pepper flakes to taste
• jalapeno optional
• 2 chayote squash cut into 1 inch chunks
• 2 tbsp fresh cilantro
• bacon optional
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion, garlic, and red pepper. Include jalapeno if desired. Saute until onion is tender. 

2. Add the squash, cilantro, salt and pepper (and bacon if desired), and continue cooking for 5 minutes.
   

3. Add broth and simmer for 20 minutes or until chayote is tender.

4. Use a slotted spoon to removed chayote from broth, and place in blender. Pour enough broth into blender to combine ingredients. Blend into a puree.

5. Pour into bowls to serve. Garnish with cilantro if desired.

Recipe Notes

Use olive oil to replace butter, and vegetable broth to replace chicken broth to make recipe vegan.