Claire's Cake Bake & Other Foodiness

Today it was dark when we got home. How depressing.

To cheer us up I made the Pumpkin Soup from the November Sainsbury magazine - a recipe by Tana Ramsay. The recipe says that you can you use any squash so we picked up two butternut squashes - I think all the pumpkins must have gone to good homes in time for Halloween.

Ingredients (Serves 6)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 10g butter
• 2kg (4lb 8oz) squash of your choice - diced
• 3 sprigs rosemary
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 litre chicken stock
• optional - 2 Parmesan rinds

How to Do It

Heat oil & butter in large pan

Add garlic & rosemary

Add the squash and let it cook for a few minutes until the squash starts to colour (If you are adding the Parmesan rind pop it in at this stage and let it melt a little bit)

Add stock & a pinch of salt

Let everything simmer for 25 minutes - the squash will be soft

Cool slightly then remove the stalks from the rosemary and the Parmesan rind

Using a liquidiser or hand held blender blend until smooth

Warm the soup back up & serve with crusty bread

I have to hold my hands up & say I ended up making half the quantity above, cutting a raw butternut squash is blumin’ hard work!

Now I need to find a recipe that calls for roasted squash - I think I’ve seen one with feta cheese lying around here somewhere…

The nights are drawing in and soup is most definitely the order of the day. This years soup making started up in Scotland when I made a hearty pan of Yellow Split Pea Soup - it was thick and filling and extremely tasty.

I think one of the best things about soup is that simple ingredients produce flavours that normally exceed your expectations. For example tonight I made Butternut Squash & Rosemary soup:

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1 Butternut Squash
• Few sprigs Rosemary
• 150g well rinsed red lentils
• 1 onion, finely chopped1 1/2 Pint Vegetable Stock
• salt & pepper

How to Do It

1. Set oven to 200 °C
2. Halve squash - scoop out the seeds & fibrous flesh, then cut squash into large chunks
3. Put squash pieces on baking tray, season with salt & pepper and sprinkle with rosemary
4. Cook for 45 minutes

Whilst the squash is in the oven -

1. Rinse lentils well then put in a pan & cover with water - boil rapidly for 10 mins. Drain well
2. Wash out pan & then put lentils back in with the chopped onion and vegetable stock
3. Simmer for 5 minutes
4. When squash is cooked, carefully scoop out the flesh & mash with a fork.
5. Add squash to soup & simmer for 25 minutes
6. Serve with crusty bread.

We both had a hearty bowlful for tea and now there should be enough left to take to work for lunch.

Since we have been back from Scotland I’ve made soup at least four times & I’ve made enough to take for a lunch. We bought some cheap flasks from Tesco & so far they work very well. I may even invest in something a little more substantial as ‘real soup’ makes such a difference to a ‘cup-a-soup’ which is what I have resorted to in the past.

I’ll post some more recipes soon, but so far we have tried & thoroughly enjoyed the Yellow Split Pea soup and Fennel & Lemon soup.

I also have quite a few parsnips in the cupboard which I need to use up, so if you have any good parsnip soup ideas let me know!