Apr 13

Apr 13 Loaded Butternut Squash and Carrot Soup

Small Plates and Sides, Suppers, Comfort Food

A vitamin rich soup which will feel like an indulgence when you have loaded it with soured cream, bacon bits, spring onions and crispy shallots. One to keep you going until the weather warms up

You can freeze the soup if you want to and defrost it in the fridge overnight when you are ready to use it.

Simply make the garnishes fresh to put on top when you reheat the soup.

Method

Serves 6

Prep time: 10 mins Cooking time: 30 mins

You will need a blender and a large heavy based pan.

Peel and chop the onion and garlic. Peel and chop each carrot into 1cm dice, removing both the carrot ends first.

Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed pan and add the onions. Cook for 3 minutes and then add the garlic and paprika and fry for 2 more minutes. Make the bouillon stock and pour it into the pan.

Add the carrots, bring the stock to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, peel, deseed and chop the butternut squash into 2.5cm pieces. After 5 minutes, add the butternut squash, bay leaf, sugar, tomato puree, sea salt and black pepper. Stir until the tomato puree is mixed in with the stock. Bring to the boil.

Cook on a medium simmer for 12-15 minutes, until the carrots and butternut squash are soft but not waterlogged.

This is a good time to prepare your garnishes if you are serving the soup straight away. Otherwise, just return to this step when you are ready.

For the bacon bits, slice streaky bacon into thin sticks. Add to a cold frying pan and turn on the heat. Let the bacon cook, stirring occasionally for around 5 minutes so it is crispy and browned. Use a slotted spoon to carefully lift the bacon bits out of the pan onto a plate covered in kitchen roll.

For the shallots, slice thinly and dredge in the flour. In the same pan as you cooked the bacon, add some vegetable oil and bring up to frying heat. You can add a small piece of shallot or a piece of bread to check it is hot enough. Be careful not to have the oil too hot or your shallots will just burn and turn bitter.

Add the shallots and fry until golden. Lift our onto the plate covered in kitchen roll. You can buy good ready made fried shallots if you would prefer to miss out this step.

Finally, thinly slice your spring onions, removing any tough outer skins.

When the vegetables are cooked, turn off the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes before blending.

Blend the soup in batches, pouring each batch into a large bowl. Be careful not to overfill the blender and make sure the lid is securely fitted.

Rinse out the pan and return the blended soup to it. Add the lemon juice, check the seasoning and adjust to taste. Bring the soup up to heat if you are using it straight away.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls, put a heaped dessert spoon of soured cream in the middle and scatter over the bacon bits, spring onions and crispy shallots.

Ingredients

Soup

1 medium red onion chopped

2 garlic cloves finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 kg carrots chopped (approx 700g after skin and ends removed)

1500g of butternut squash (weight after skin and seeds removed)

1 litre of vegetable boullion

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 bay leaf

1 tsp course sea salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper