Spiced Butternut Squash Soup

I flitted through a newspaper on one of my recent escapades into town and with my free read over coffee I came across a write-up on a detox.  The writer followed Gwyneth Paltrow recipes and at the end of the programme found her clothes looser but had found the cooking hard work.  A lot of time, a lot of prep. and some hard to find ingredients.  One recipe that the writer raved about however was this soup – handy as a standby to have in the fridge.  As I work from home this appealed to me as when you work in proximity to your own fridge there is a danger that, when you swing out of it ravenous of a lunchtime, you will pick and grab at everything in sight – handfuls of grapes, wedges of cheese, leftover roasties; and they’re often gobbled before you even realise what you’ve eaten.  A healthy soup that will heat up in a minute is the perfect safeguard against fridge piggery.  Or so I thought when I prepared this soup.  Yes, I thought, there’ll be a jug of this and I’ll have a bowl every lunchtime for the week.  WRONG!  The first hurdle was that I devoured two bowls in the tasting myself.  On the kids’ return from school five of them decided they’d have a taste too.  While I cooked dinner I succumbed to another bowlful as a ‘starter’ which meant that there was one remaining bowl hidden for the following day’s lunch.  This is DELICIOUS soup. I recommend doubling of quantities especially if you find butternut squash on special offer.

Spiced Butternut Squash Soup
You will need:
1 butternut squash
1 tbsp olive or rapeseed oil
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 large onion
2 garlic cloves
chunk of ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala
700ml chicken stock
Method:
Preheat the oven to 200C
Half and de-seed the butternut squash
Oil with olive or rapeseed oil and season on the flesh side
Place butternut squash flesh side down on baking tray lined with baking paper and cook in hot oven for 35 minutes
Meanwhile slice the onion, crush the garlic and grate the ginger.
Heat the coconut oil in a large saucepan and add the onion, leave to soften with the saucepan covered over a low heat for 20 minutes
Turn the heat up and add the garlic, ginger and spices to the onions, mixing well and cooking for a minute.  Add the chicken stock and reduce to a simmer.
Once the butternut squash has been cooked use a spoon to scoop the tender flesh into the soup.  Bring to the boil, reduce to simmer for 10 minutes and blend before serving.
Enjoy.
‘Til next time, Sheila.