Vegan Butternut Squash Curry

This Level 3: Moderately Thick Vegan Butternut Squash Curry is the perfect IDDSI Level 3: Moderately Thick recipe. It’s creamy, smooth, and incredibly delicious!

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This recipe is brought to you by….AROMATICS! What are aromatics you ask? It’s the little things that go into your cooking that make a tremendous difference. Things like onions, shallots, garlic, ginger, leeks, celery, peppers, and spices. The base of this recipe is very important. I started with shallot, garlic, ginger, fresh green chile, and curry paste.

Let’s talk about curry paste for a second. The red curry paste by the brand Thai Kitchen is what I used here. I typically use other pastes, but this one is the most readily available in most supermarkets. If you have another red curry paste that you like, go ahead and use it!

The important thing about curry paste is that you have to cook it. Now you’re thinking “duh Louisa, isn’t that the point?” You’d be surprised how many people don’t properly cook curry paste. If you don’t cook it before (or with) your aromatics, it will have a raw, unpleasant taste.

Think of it like making a roux – you need to cook the flour so it’s not raw. I like to cook my curry paste for a little longer than necessary, somewhere between 5-7 minutes. You probably only need to cook it for about two. That being said, the longer you cook it, the more flavor that will develop.

I was hesitant to use my Nutribullet to blend this recipe. I don’t know why, but something about it didn’t feel right. Let me tell you, I was dead wrong! It came out absolutely perfect. It was creamy and smooth. I didn’t even feel the need to run it through a fine-mesh sieve. If you don’t have a Nutribullet, an immersion blender would work nicely. You could use a Vitamix, or maybe even a food processor.

After you blend it, make sure you do the syringe test. Mine came out as a perfect IDDSI Level 3: moderately thick. My syringe had 10 ml of liquid, and I was left with around 8.5 ml. You could add more vegetable broth if you needed to thin it out.

Level 3: Moderately Thick / Liquidized

Level 3: Moderately Thick / Liquidized is appropriate for individuals who have reduced control of their tongue or reduced ability to move food to the center of their mouth for swallowing. Foods are completely smooth and have no lumps, fibers, or particles. Moderately Thick foods do not hold their shape when poured and cannot be eaten with a fork.

Foods are tested using the Spoon Tilt Test, Fork Drip Test, and Flow Test at this level. Foods must pour easily from a spoon when tilted, and do not stick to the spoon. The food should drip slowly through the tines of a fork and a fork cannot leave a clear pattern if pressed into the food.

The IDDSI Flow Test is a standardized test for determining the level of a liquid sample. You must have a 10ml syringe for this test, and not all syringes are created equal. Hold a ruler up to your syringe and the distance from the very bottom line to the 10ml mark must measure 61.5 mm. We recommend watching IDDSI’s Youtube video of the Flow Test as well as this comparison between Levels 1-3 before you cook as well as during the testing of your final modified portion.

Always test your food before serving to ensure that it meets all the IDDSI testing guidelines.

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