Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Tom again tonight,

Making soups out of squashes (and pumpkins!) is an absolute favourite of mine. When roasted the flesh almost melts down to give a really smooth and almost creamy flavour. I have…not to say perfected, but tried and tested two recipes for roasted butternut squash soup, and to be honest, I can’t decide which is better. So I’m going to list both here and you can decide which you prefer!

Simple Hearty Butternut Squash Soup

This soup is a really good warming winter lunch when going outside is just too cold to be worth it. For those who eat cheese, this soup is amazing with chunks of gruyere dropped in to melt, or for that matter any cheese (cheddar melts gloriously). Once made the soup will freeze well and keep for…well I’ve never kept it long enough to find out. However, once you defrost it fully give it a stir before you heat it up again as it will separate (and look pretty disgusting I should warn you) but once it starts to bubble it should go back to looking more like soup.

Ingredients:

1 large Butternut Squash

2 large Onions

3 large cloves of Garlic

2 tbsp Oil (or butter)

1 tsp Nutmeg

Pinch of Cloves (optional)

1 litre of Vegetable Stock

Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat oven to 200°C

Split the butternut squash in half

Scoop out the seeds using a spoon and discard

Place on a baking tray (flesh down) and bake for 25-30 minutes (or until flesh is soft throughout). Once it’s fully roasted, leave it on a side to cool, then carry on with the recipe (You can also stop at this point and freeze the butternut squash for a later date, the flesh is soft enough to scoop off the skin and can but put in a tub easily).

Chop the onion roughly and add the oil or butter (whether vegan or dairy). Butter gives richness and some colour to the onions but also adds fat so it’s your call.

Now put the lid on and leave it. Totally. You can stir it occasionally but that’s it. Leave it for about 20 minutes. The onions will really brown and caramelise which gives the soup a rich flavour with really goes with the roasted butternut squash.

Once the 20 minutes are up add the garlic and few for another couple of minutes, then scoop out the flesh of the butternut squash and add it to the pan.

Fry the flesh for just a couple of minutes while you season the soup with nutmeg and salt and pepper, and cloves if you want (just a really little bit).

Next add enough of the stock to cover the squash and bring the whole lot to the boil

Simmer for just a couple of minutes, then if it’s the right consistency, take it off the heat and blend.

Serve with bread and enjoy!

Nutritional Information (is made into 5 portions)

                         Calories      Carbs      Fat      Protein       Sodium        Sugar
          Total:         669           108        30           9              481             24
Per Serving:          134            22          6            2               96               5

Spicy Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

This recipe has a lot more flavours added. Also the combination of garlic, squash and chili gives off a really enticing smell. (This one has photos!) If you’re not such a fan of chili I would recommend the simple version of this roasted butternut squash soup. I like using both fresh and cooked chilli as they have quite different flavours and also different levels of heat so this recipe fries 2/3 of a chilli in with the soup and then adds the final third just before blending. I like to add butterbeans to this to vary the texture slightly, but if you don’t like them, don’t add them!

1 large Butternut Squash

2 large Onions

3 large cloves of Garlic

1 Red Chili

2 tbsp Oil (or butter)

1 tsp Cumin

1 tsp Corriander

1 tsp Paprika

1 litre of Vegetable Stock

1/2 can Butterbeans (optional)

Dash of Soy Sauce

Salt and Pepper to taste

This recipe starts off the same as the previous – halve the squash and roast it as above (200°C for 25-30 minutes), then leave too cool before removing the skin.

Then roughly chop the two onions and add to a large pan, caramelise with a lid on for a good 20 minutes.

Once the onions have browned nicely, chop up the garlic and the chili. Add all of the garlic and 2/3 of the chili.

Fry for a further two minutes, and then add the butternut squash flesh. Heat through and then add the spices, and fry briefly.

Next pour in all the stock until it covers the ingredients. Don’t add it all if you don’t need too, it will be too runny.

Ignore the butterbeans, I added them by accident then had to fish them out again one by one. Here's an artist's impression of what that might have looked like.

Wait a minute...what did you use as bait for butterbeans?

Sorry, got a bit sidetracked there. Really trying hard not to get any work done tonight. Now bring the soup to the boil, and simmer to the correct thickness (as you like!).

Add the final 1/3 of the chilli, and blend until smooth.

Now you can add the butterbeans (if you are).

Finally serve in a bowl with a nice piece of crusty bread.

Add a dash of soy sauce to the soup to give it a nice depth of flavour.

Hope you enjoy these recipes, and as ever let us know any suggestions or improvements you made at twocooksoneblog@gmail.com. Feel free to create your own variation from the basic recipe!