By Dream Angus
Here is a recipe for a hearty Butternut Squash and Sweet Potato Soup. Butternut will keep for a very long time. The soup will last you a few days. It makes a warming meal with the simple bread recipes in The Orkney News .
Butternut And Sweet Potato Soup Recipe.
- 1 Butternut Squash
- 2 Sweet potatoes
- 5 carrots
- 2- 3 leeks
- 6 stock cubes to taste ( I used chicken but you might use vegetable stock instead or a mix of both)
- You can also use turnip, parsnips, and celery.
- Variations include adding coriander.
- Glug of olive oil
- Sea salt and coarse black pepper, but go easy on the salt as it is in the stock cubes.
Method
Cut the leeks and cook in a large 5 or 6 litre pan with the glug of olive oil
Add all the other vegetables chopped. I use a hand blender with recipe once it is cooked.
(The Butternut should be cut in half and the seeds and stringy bits removed. I peel mine but some people cook it skin and all. If your Butternut Squash is too big you can also put it in the oven to roast as it makes a really tasty roast vegetable.)
Add boiling water and stir adding in the stock cubes.
Simmer until all the vegetables are soft and let cool. I use a hand blender at this point to blend it it into a smooth soup. The more reckless among you can add some cream when serving.
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A different version of the above tasty recipe:
You can also make this a “thick” soup… melt butter and stir in flour, then use the water you cooked the veg in to dilute (keep stirring if you don’t want flour clumps!). Add some soured cream before serving… tastes far better (and less calories) than ordinary cream. Any leftovers from previous meals, such as bits of bacon, sausages etc. can be cut up, if needed swiftly fried in a pan with just some butter or oil, and added to the soup.
Works with lots of different veg, neeps, tatties…and you can add many leftovers from other veg, such as courgettes for example.
If you want a cheesy note (and a few more calories to keep warm), you can add cheddar or Feta (cut in cubes to melt away or completely dissolved)…
N.B.: By using the veg boil water, you may need less stock cubes because it already contains a little bit of salt. If you add “meaty” leftovers, you may get away with just 1 or 2 stock cubes, provided you use some additional spices, personally I use curcuma (turmeric).
Home made stock….
https://theorkneynews.scot/2020/04/30/waste-not-want-not/
…adds to the flavour. And its’ FREEEEE!
for the meaty stock cube version… after frying meat or sausages in good quality fat, oils or butter I usually let the fatty layer cool off, then scrape it off the pan, form it in small balls, wrap in clingfilm and store in fridge or freezer.
Works perfectly.
The frying temperature should not be too high (many people unfortunately “burn” meat instead of frying it which isn’t very healthy), hence always try to keep the temperature as low as possible and rather add a few minutes.
If you do it right and depending on your personal choice of spices, the stuff even tastes nice as a cold spread on wholemeal bread.
“If you do it right and depending on your personal choice of spices, the stuff even tastes nice as a cold spread on wholemeal bread.”
My lord – memories of bread & dripping – that was a good while ago. I can remember the taste….and the coating on my teeth afterwards!