Bold Roasted Butternut Soup to warm you up on a winter’s weekend

It’s butternut season and I got a couple of fat ones in my Boschenbox last week. I have a love/hate relationship with butternut: sometimes, I can’t get enough of it and I make it almost every day, and sometimes I really don’t want it anywhere near my plate. I can’t really explain it, but what I have figured out is that I prefer it with warming spices like cinnamon and cloves. To be honest, in winter I prefer anything with cinnamon and cloves! So, here is my recipe for roasted butternut soup (adapted from the amazing New Covent Garden Soup Company – those people can cook soup!!). It’s super easy and though it takes a bit of time to cook, the flavours are just amazing so it’s well worth the effort. It’s the perfect bowl of warm for a cold weekend!

Roasted Butternut Soup

You will need (serves 6):

• 3 large butternuts, cut in half lengthways and deseeded (you can throw the seeds on your compost heap – they will most likely start to flourish there!)
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• fine cinnamon
• 1.2 litre of stock (you can use veggie stock, but I prefer the depth that chicken stock adds)
• 100ml cream
• 3 tbs pumpkin seeds
• fine cloves
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 160ºC
• Place the butternut halves on a roasting tray. Place 1/2 tbs in each butternut, and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon. Then bake them for about 1 hour. You want them to get really deeply caramelised on top and gooey inside. Remove from the oven when done, and let them cool down.
• Once the butternuts are cool enough to touch, scoop out the flesh with a spoon and set it aside.
• Place the stock, remaining butter and butternut pulp in a large thick-based saucepan, and heat to just before boiling point.
• Use a blend stick to puree the butternut inside the stock, creating a smooth, thick soup.
• Stir in the cream
• Season with another sprinkling of cinnamon, a pinch of fine cloves, and salt and pepper to taste.

To serve:

Heat a pan on the stove and add 1/2 tsp of cinnamon powder and the pumpkin seeds. Do not add any oil or butter, you want to dry roast the seeds. Gently roast them for a few of minutes, shaking the pan frequently until they’ve browned and the delicious aromas have developed. Keep an eye on them so that they don’t burn!

Dish the soup into deep bowls, and dress with a swirl of cream and a sprinkling of the cinnamon pumpkin seeds.

Serve with grilled goat’s cheese toast – YUM!

Happy cooking!