Butternut Squash, Ginger and Orange Soup

Disease and illness have been stalking the Soup household for weeks now.  Every room in the house is strewn with discarded boxes of potions pills and medicines.  Enough cough sweets have been bought to make the pharmacist think that I may be making crystal meth in my kitchen.  Far from that, I have in fact been labouring to produce the perfect vitamin laden soups to aid in cold-recovery.

As we hit the new year, everyone's  thought turn to feeling and eating a little more healthy.  And that's where it is soup's turn to shine.  Just think - pretty much every bowl of soup is just a whole heaping pan full of vegetables, with added garlic, ginger, turmeric and other things that science may or may not have decided are good for you.  And even if they don't possess any actual medical or restorative qualities, they certainly make you feel like they do, when served in a bowl of soup.

So the first soup I made in this bright and shiny year of our lord 2015 was this healthy and tasty butternut squash soup.  Its a perfect combination of vegetables, sweet and spicy bits. To be honest, you could make a brilliant soup by cooking pretty much any vegetables, adding some chilli and coconut milk (except sprouts) but then if you all did that, there would be no reason to come back and visit this blog, would there.

So remember, freestyling soup is dangerous.  Only attempt to make soup recipes that have been prepared by a soup professional.  You have been warned...

Ingredients
1 Butternut Squash
1 Onion
2 Stalks Celery
1 Orange
1tbsp Ginger Puree
1tbsp Garlic Puree
1tsp Dried Chili Flakes
1tsp Cumin
750ml Vegetable Stock
250ml Coconut Milk
Salt and Pepper
Chili Oil

Method.  
1.  Heat the oven to 180ºc.  Peel and de-seed them squash, then cut into chunks.  Put the chunks in an oven proof dish and toss in olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper then put in the oven and roast for 45 minutes, until the squash is soft and the edges are starting to go a golden brown.  Remove from the oven and set aside

2.  Finely chop the onion and celery.  In your soup pan, heat some oil and add the onion and celery,  Gently fry until the onion is soft and staring to brown.

3.  Add the Ginger and garlic and cook for another 2 or 3 minutes.  Then add the cumin, chili and roasted butternut.  Stir it round so the spices cover everything then add the stock and juice of the orange.  Bring the soup to a simmer, put the lid on and cook for 20 minutes.

4.  Remove the soup from the heat, let cool and blend until smooth.  Add the coconut milk, adjust seasoning to taste and re-heat, then serve with a swirl of chilli oil.  Enjoy!