Grim up North Heath

Tag: soup

  • Butternut squash soup

    Butternut squash soup

    Younger daughter made this for us, loosely based on a recipe from BBC Good Food but adapted somewhat. This is a spicy version, alter the amount of chilli as you wish.

    Timings: Total = 2 hours. prep – 10 min Cook – 30 minutes. Total includes ‘leaving to absorb flavours’ time.

    Feeds four. Total cost (Nov 2025): £3.00 (soup) £2.00 (nice bread)

    Ingredients

    One butternut squash (about 1 kg)

    1 tablespoon butter

    2 tablespoons olive oil

    1 onion, diced

    2 garlic cloves

    1 tablespoon dried chili flakes

    1/2 teaspoon paprika

    800 ml vegetable stock

    4 tablespoon crème fraiche

    You’ll need a roasting dish, a large saucepan and a blender. We used a stick blender for this. A large plastic food box or a large zip-tie bag will also be needed.

    Peel, deseed and dice the butternut squash.

    The skin of the butternut squash is quite thick. Either use a good peeler or a knife to remove the skin.
    Scoop the seeds out with a tablespoon. You can dry them off and separate from the stringy bits then roast them for a snack.

    Add the olive oil and paprika to a large plastic food box or a large bag. Add the diced squash, mix well and leave for an hour to absorb the flavours. You can use a bowl to do this if you don’t have a box or bag to hand.

    Set the oven to 180 C/ gas 6. Fry the onions in butter over a low heat. After 5 minutes, add the garlic and chilli flakes and continue to fry.

    While the onions are frying, put the squash and the oil into a roasting dish and roast for 30 minutes. Stir them at least once during the roasting.

    After 30 minutes the squash will be soft (squashy!) and the onions slightly caramelised. Add the vegetable stock to the onions. Take the squash out of the oven and add this to the stock.

    Diced squash, roasted.
    Add the roasted squash to the onions and stock. This will add some much-needed colour to the soup.

    Using the stick blender (or other device), liquidise the soup until it’s smooth and lump-free.

    The stick blender makes the mushing up of the squash easy. If you want a smoother soup, a liquidiser is a better bet.

    Warm through and add the crème fraiche either to the completed soup or swirl into each serving as you dish up.

    Finished soup. We got some crusty bread to go with it. A sprinkling of parmesan would also add to the flavour.

    We got some nice bread to go with this, though regular Warburtons (or other sliced bread) is fine as well.

  • Leek and potato soup

    Leek and potato soup

    Frost in March? Time for shoop!

    Makes enough for four people

    Timings: Prep = 10 min. Cooking = 30 min. Eating = 5 min

    Ingredients

    500 – 600 g potatoes (Baking potatoes or big, floury ones)

    500 -600 g leeks (about the same amount of leeks and potatoes)

    Veggie stock (Knorr stock pot, if possible)

    2 garlic cloves

    I add chilli flakes and cumin (half a teaspoon) to pep it up a bit, oregano and thyme (teaspoon or more) to help make it interesting.

    Additions

    Bacon lardons

    Parmesan

    Method

    You’ll need a big saucepan and a blender.

    Chop the leeks, roughly – only use the white and pale green parts.

    Peel then dice the potatoes and put into water.

    Add a splash of oil to a large saucepan – the soup is made in this pan, so it needs to be big. I use peanut oil, because I’m like that, but vegetable or olive will be fine. Don’t use extra virgin olive oil. though. Fry the leeks over a medium heat until they start to soften and before they go brown. If they go a little brown, don’t worry.

    Add crushed garlic, spices and herbs if using them – fry for about 30 seconds. Add water and stockpot to cover the ingredients. Add the potatoes and more water to cover the spuds.

    Simmer for at least 20 minutes, until the potatoes are softened.

    Use the blender (I bought a stick blender from Wilco years ago and use this. Well worth the £12 it cost.) to mash up the ingredients. You may need to add more water to get the viscosity right – this is a matter of preference.

    Warm the soup through on a low heat. This helps thicken up the soup as starch is released from the potato particles. Meanwhile, fry the bacon lardons until they’re crispy. Grate a good pile of parmesan.

    Serve soup with a sprinkle of bacon and cheese. Serve with bread; Mrs S makes excellent bread that is great with this. But we had none, so I had Warburton’s white instead.