Home-made soup on a cold winters night is so warming, it is the perfect meal. A small portion can be enjoyed as a starter, or you could go for a bigger portion and have it as your dinner. It is such a healthy meal too as you can easily pile in loads of vegetables, and a great way to get kids to eat their veg - they will have no idea what has gone in! So because of this, I have decided to do a soup series. Over the remaining weeks of winter, I will post six soup recipes...
The Six Soup Series!
This soup's main ingredients are butternut squash and sweet potato, which make it so filling. It is a lovely thick and creamy soup, which is full of flavour with an extra little kick from the chilli.
Ingredients
1 butternut squash
2 sweet potatoes
1 onion
3-5 garlic cloves
1-2 chillies
850ml/1.5 pints hot vegetable stock (I used 2 oxo cubes)
4tbsp crème fraiche + extra to serve
2tbsp olive oil
The garlic and chillies are variable, depending on your preferences. I used 5 cloves of garlic as I love garlic, but only 1 chilli as I can't handle too much heat!
Heat your oven to 200◦C.
First of all, you need to peel the butternut squash and sweet potatoes and then roughly chop them up. Pour enough olive oil into a roasting tin/baking tray to cover the base, and then put the butternut squash and sweet potato chunks in ensuring they are all covered in oil. Place in the oven for 30-40 minutes, turning at least once throughout.
Whilst the squash and potatoes are roasting, finely chop up your onion, chilli and garlic. Put approximately 2 tbsp oil into a frying pan on a low heat and add the onion. Cover the pan with a lid if you have one,if not you can use a piece of tin foil to act as a lid. After 5 minutes, add the garlic and 3/4 of the chilli (save a 1/4 for the end) and fry for a further 10 minutes with the lid on until the onions are soft. Stir every now and again to ensure consistent cooking of the onions. A low heat is very important to avoid burning.
Whilst your onions, garlic and chillies are cooking, you can prepare your vegetable stock. You may be using pre-made stock, which is fine. If not, then I just crumble two vegetable oxo cubes into a jug and add 1.5 pints of boiling water, continuously stiring to avoid any lumps.
After 30-40 minutes, your butternut squash and sweet potatoes should be ready. They will be golden brown and soft.
Now you are ready to blitz! Add the squash, potatoes, onions, garlic, chilli, crème fraiche and stock into the same vessel, and whizz. This could be a hand mixer or a food processor. I had to do mine in two batches as it makes quite a lot. Mix until smooth, it shouldn't take long.
Once liquidised, pour back into the pan and re-heat for a few minutes. It is then ready to serve.
To serve, sprinkle the remaining chilli on top that you saved, and swirl in some crème fraiche. I served mine up with a ciabatta that I heated up in the oven (I slightly cheated with that!)
I hope this has inspired you to get soup making whilst we see winter out. It is such a hearty warm meal, which definitely keeps the shivers at bay. Keep an eye out for the second soup whilst we try and keep warm together!
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