Ally Bally's Blog

This is a really lovely soup to enjoy around either Autumn (Fall) or Spring time. It’s a great warming and tasty soup that will have you coming back for more every time, definitely one of my favourite soups! Serves 2-3 adults.

Ingredients:

900g Butternut Squash

2 Chicken or Vegetable Stock Cubes

Handful of flat leaf parsley

1 Large Onion

1 Large Garlic Clove

1 tablespoon of Olive Oil

30g Butter

Salt and Pepper

A dash of double cream if you have it

Utensils:

1 Large pot

1 Large spoon

1 Litre Measuring Jug

1 Spatula

1 Ladle

1 Electric hand blender

1 Chopping board

1 Sharp Knife (and perhaps a peeler)

2 Large bowls to put the chopped vegetables into

1 Bag for peels and rubbish

A kettle for boiling some water.

Method

Firstly, chop up the onion into small pieces and toss them into a bowl. Either grate or mash the garlic clove and add that to the same bowl.

Next, get to work on the butternut squash – slice (or use the potato peeler) to remove the skin from the squash, slice the top and the bottom off the squash and then slice it about half way. Inside it’s like a pumpkin, lots of seeds and membrane. Scoop the seeds etc out with the large spoon and toss the seeds etc into the rubbish. Slice the squash up into small bite sized pieces, the smaller the better. Place them all into the other bowl.

Grab the pot and put the tablespoon of oil into it. Heat it up on a medium heat. As the oil begins to heat, add the 30g of butter and let it melt.

Once the butter has melted, toss in the first bowl containing the garlic and onion. Saute for around five minutes.

Whilst you are waiting on the onions to sauté take a minute away from the stirring to boil a litre of water in the kettle. Whilst it is boiling, break up the two stock cubes into the measuring jug. Once the water boils, pour 900ml water into the jug.

Once the onions are sauteed, add the 900ml stock to the pot. Bring to the boil.

Once the pot is boiling add the butternut squash cubes from the other bowl and ensure that the water is still bubbling away for around 25 minutes or until the squash can easily be mashed by sticking the spatula against a chunk of squash and the side of the pan. Remove from heat.

Get your hand blender plugged in and blend the soup until there are no traces of squash chunks remaining.

Take the parsley and bunch it together so you can easily chop it up roughly. Set the parsley aside for a moment whilst you use the ladle to put the soup into serving bowls. Top the soup off with a little parsley and if you have the cream, take a serving spoon and dip it in the cream. Then put the spoon in the soup and swirl it around in towards the parsley in the middle to create a nice effect.

Serve with some nice bread and butter and watch the smiles!