Hey there my fine foodie friends! So what’s on the menu today? Well, I’m not sure what the weather’s like where you are but I can tell where I am it’s freezing!! Christmas and the holidays are all well and good but why can’t it be in the summer!? Well, I suppose if it was then they’d have to rewrite a lot of songs right! White Christmas, Frosty the Snowman and so on…

Anyway, I digress. Where was I? Oh yes. What’s on the menu? Well, with all of this cold weather, and Jen being from Singapore where it is always anywhere between 29.5C and 30.5C we needed something to warm ourselves up. What better, therefore, than a good old hot soup. And, with that decision, what’s better than a butternut squash soup? Nothing, I can tell you…

 

However, although I’m going to show you how to make butternut squash soup I have to add a little caveat here. There’s never one way to make butternut squash soup. There are many variations and many ingredients you can add to flavour the butternut squash. I’m going to use sage, thyme and chilli, but if you don’t like any of these just leave them out. Or try nutmeg or cinnamon. Or carrot, celery and coriander. There are endless combinations although the base is always the same…

1. Start to roast the butternut squash

As you will know from my previous posts I always recommend getting all of the ingredients together before starting any cooking. This butternut squash soup recipe is one of the rare exceptions.

Because the butternut squash needs to be roasted before adding to the soup I would always kick this off first. First of all, therefore, peel the butternut squash, cut in half, and remove the seeds. Then cut into small chunks, place on baking tray and drizzle with olive all, and season.

Now place on a pre-heated oven at 200C / 180C Fan.

In terms of roasting time, this is a moot point. Many recipes will suggest 30 minutes but in all my time cooking butternut squash I think a minimum of 45 minutes and quite possibly over an hour. Either way, the butternut squash need to be soft and cooked through otherwise the soup will end up tasting a little bitter.

2. Now get the rest of the ingredients together

There are not many ingredients to this butternut squash soup recipe. Simple dice the onion and, slice the garlic and chilli. Prepare the stock. Finally, measure out the sage and thyme. Remember, the soup will be blended so there is no need to be overly obsessive about the preparation.

3. Start making the soup

When you feel the butternut squash is around 15 minutes from being cooked put the onion, chilli, and garlic into a medium saucepan with some olive oil and nob of butter. Then, over low heat, and with a lid on, sweat the ingredients off for about 10 minutes. Add the herbs halfway through.

Once the butternut squash is soft and cooked add this to the saucepan and mix all ingredients together.

Finally, add the stock and heat through.

4. Blend the soup

Once all of the ingredients have heated through put them into a food processor. You may need to blend batches if your food processor is small.

Now, blend on maximum for around 1.5 minutes or until you have a smooth blended soup.

5. Finish the soup off and serve

Once you are happy with the soup’s consistency pour it back into the saucepan and heat up. Now add 4 dessertspoonfuls of cream and season to taste. When happy with the seasoning melt a nob of butter in the soup to create a nice shine to the soup.

Finally, serve in a soup bowl with some crusty granary bread. Garnish with a small swirl of cream.

Doesn’t that look wholesome and warming! Yum Yum.

 

OK, foodie gang, that’s it for now. I’m off to enjoy the soup! I hope you liked the recipe and please let me know how you get on if you give it a go. I’ve also posted a few more of the great recipes from The Yum Yum Club below. Enjoy…

As always, many thanks for reading and until next time… Steve.

 

 

6. Printable recipe