As winter starts to Chip away at the milder weather we’ve been having recently it’s about time we started to create a few decent hearty vegetables soups to warm the cockles of your poetic souls. First on the list is a smooth as silk spicy butternut squash soup that takes a lot of inspiration from Indian spices. It’s not a terribly tough one to put together and you can take the H.O.T factor up as high as you want by increasing the volume of spices you put into it.
All told, our spicy butternut squash recipe should take you around 35 minutes from veg box to bowl. Serve it, as ever, with a chunky slice of granary, a few slices of toast or even some hot naan break to make it really feel like an Indian smoothie. It makes enough soup to serve around comfortably and for any more we recommend doubling up the quantities and saving whatever’s left for another day in the fridge or freezer.
Ingredients (serves 4):
• 1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped roughly
• 1 small onion or a couple of shallots finely chopped
• 3 medium sized floury potatoes (King Edward, Maris Piper, but any tatties will do the trick really)
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 cardamom pods
• 1/4 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/8 tsp garam masala
• 1/8 tsp fenugreek
• 1/4 tsp turmeric
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 750ml vegetable stock
• A good couple of pinches of salt and pepper to season well
Spicy butternut squash recipe details:
1. Put the butternut squash, onion, potatoes, garlic, cardamom pods, bay leaf and stock into a large pan and put on a high heat to start to boil with a lid on to seal everything in.
2. Put the rest of the spices, including the cumin seeds, as well as the salt and pepper into a mortar and pestle and give them a good grinding to create a very aromatic spice and seasoning mix.
3. Once your squash pan is up to a good boil turn the heat down and add the spices and seasoning before putting the lid back on and returning the soup pan to the heat.
4. Simmer for around 15 minutes until the butternut squash it soft and tender and remove from the heat.
5. Take out the cardamom pods and the bay leaf and give the pan a crush with a potatoe masher to break up the bigger chunks.
6. Blitz the soup with a hand blender until it’s smooth and silky and serve up in a soup bowl with your bread of choice.
7. If you want to create a cool effect and add in a little extra winter cheer, pour in a small amount of single cream and swirl it with the point of a sharp knife.
