I had a couple of butternut squash that I’d bought pre-lockdown and almost forgot about them: a couple of months later and they were still sitting there, waiting to be turned into something tasty. I can’t believe how long those things last! Talk about pandemic survival foods, squash is where it’s at.
For a butternut soup, you can either peel and cut the butternut, then boil everything together in the pot before blending—but because I’m a lazy peeler and I love the smell of roasting veg, I opted for the roast butternut alternative.
Just slice the butternut in half lengthways, remove the seeds, and pop it in the oven (with a drizzle of olive oil, some salt and pepper, and some other veggies on the side). Then scoop out the flesh and stick it all in the pot with vegetable stock, bring to a boil and then blend before serving. Perfection.
Roast Butternut Soup
Equipment
- Oven
- Stove
- Immersion blender
Ingredients
- 1 medium butternut squash about 1.5 kg
- 1 medium onion quartered
- 3 medium carrots diced
- 4 cloves garlic peeled, whole
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 cups vegetable stock
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Directions
- Preheat the oven to about 210ºC.
- Slice the butternut in half (lengthways), and scoop out the seeds.
- Slice the onion in half, remove the outer skin, top and tail it, and slice each half in half (so it's quartered).
- Dice the carrots and peel the garlic cloves.
- Place the butternut, onion, carrots and garlic on a large oven tray, and drizzle the olive oil all over.
- Place in the oven and roast for about 45 minutes, until the butternut flesh is soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool until you can handle the butternut, about 10 minutes.
- Scoop the butternut flesh out of its skin, into the pot, along with the onion, carrots and garlic.
- Add the vegetable stock, and bring to a simmer.
- Turn off the heat, and blend with an immersion blender, and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Serve with a garnish of fresh coriander, chilli flakes or coconut cream (all optional).