Warming and luxurious, a soup for the colder seasons (Soups)

Member Name: nevikrose

Product:	Soups
Date:	20/12/07 (101 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick, cheap and easy to prepare

Disadvantages: some might not like the sweet nature lent by the sweet potatoes

Now that winter is here, autmn but a fair and distant damp memory it can be tough to find warming meals that arent heavy or starchy but can still come under the all important heading of 'comfort food'

I find soups to be the saviour of winter, I dont like to fill up too much and i like food you can make in batches and keep by. I also cant stress enough importance of cooking good wholesome food from scratch, so you know what goes in it. The kind of preservatives and chemicals that go into canned soups just becomes a real turn off for me, and they always taste so stale.

While essentially an autumn recipe, (but this doesnt matter with the wonders of modern supermarkets) this squash based soup is sweet and warming without being too heavy, it is a doddle to prepare and needs little emellishment. It also has the benefit of being extremely cheap!

1 x butternut squash or small pumpkin
2-3 sweet potatoes
bunch of fresh thyme
chicken or vegetable stock (stock cube or homemade)
coriander seed and cumin seeds (1 tsp each)
a little olive oil


cut the pumpkin or butternut squash into chunks, skin on, fairly rough, but all the same size, probably about 4inches square

crush up the coriander and cumin seeds with some thyme leaves and sprinkle over the pumpkin/squash with some olive oil and rub it in

roast in a medium hot oven for about 20-30 min while the sweet potatoes cook.

boil the sweet potatoes, in the stock, adding more if necessary and when tender add the roasted pumpkin/squash (remove the skin first). boil for about 10min more until all vegies are soft

add a few more pinches of thyme leaves and blend to a smooth puree.


This soup goes wonderfully well with lightly toasted 'seedy' bread, especially the kind with pumkin seeds in (to continue a theme) it only seems right.


Also this soup can be used as a fantastic sauce over filled pasta, like spinach raviolli or similar!

Summary: a good wholesome soup packed with vitamins for the colder months