Roasted Butternut Squash soup with toasted garlic and walnuts

(Serves 6-8)

This recipe will make 6-8 fairly decent portions of soup, but I’ve fed as many as ten from this recipe as part of a 3 course meal.

This recipe works well whether you use all veggie ingredients or if you use meat stock. It can also be easily adapted for vegan/lactose intolerant diners, simply leave out the milk (substitute with soy milk or extra water) and butter (use 7g veg fat, one tbs olive oil and a pinch of salt)

Ingredients:

2 pints Veg (or chicken) stock

500ml whole milk (or single cream)

28g butter or alternative

2 Butternut Squash (or 1.5kg of Pumpkin if substituting)

1-2 tbs peanut (groundnut) or olive oil, personally I prefer peanut oil as it has a higher cooking point)

1 large onion, peeled and finely diced

4-8 cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

1dsp toasted sesame seed oil

220g chopped walnuts.

Small pinch Mace

Small pinch freshly ground nutmeg

1 stick cinnamon

Corse ground salt and cracked black pepper to taste.

To Serve:

100g Engevita Yeast Condiment Link (available from most whole food stockist and larger supermarkets and online (N.B. available in Pembrokeshire from St Davids Food and Wine LINK, Whole Food and Health Fishguard LINK or from Whole Foods of Newport (Pembs) Link, for those of you who haven’t come across this excellent condiment it’s a flaky yeast based alternative, with a rich nutty/cheesy flavour which can be used as a chees alternative, helps thicken etc. and is great sprinkled onto many savoury dished, and it’s full of b vitamins too!

OR

110g Gruyere cheese cubed (approx. 1 cm)

50g Engevita OR 50g Gruyere cheese finely grated

1 tsp. Crème Fraiche per serving

Roughly chopped coriander leaf or parsley

Fresh crusty wholemeal bread rolls, or my personal favourite, some wholemeal sour dough rolls (if you don’t want or don’t have the time to grow and keep a culture you can buy ready mix do=ugh mix from most supermarkets and most good wholefood stores

Equipment:

1 large pan, upwards of 6L

1 oven tray, non-stick or greased

1 sieve

Blender or hand blender (I recommend the latter for saving on washing up!)

1 small sauce pan

Wooden spoon for stirring,

Ladle and sufficient bowls and cutlery for your diners!

Method:

1: Peel the butternut squash (a sharp veg peeler is a must for this one, but a sharp knife will do) cut in half lengthways, scoop out the seeds and baste with a little oil. Place on the top shelf in preheated oven @210 degrees Celsius. Roast for approx. 25 min or until tender and slightly browned, (this helps bring out the nuttiness of the squash) when cooked remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly before following instruction 4.

2:Meanwhile melt the butter (or alternative) in a large pan and lightly brown the onions, turning down to a very slow cook, add half the garlic do not allow full caramelisation, put to one side when translucent. (Approx. 5-10min; its worth keeping an eye on this as overcooking will spoil the final flavour)

3: add milk and stock to the pan with the onions (if using cream do not add at this point but instead at point 5) place back on a low-medium heat and bring slowly up to a simmer.

4: whilst the onion/stock/milk mix is heating chop the squash (take care to ensure it has properly cooled) into cubes approx. 2cm.

5: add the squash to the simmering stock mixture and add the salt, pepper, mace, nutmeg and cinnamon stick and simmer for 15-20min.

6: add 1 tbs olive oil to the small pan and heat gently, add the sliced garlic flakes, sesame oil and walnuts, turn up the heat and still constantly until garlic begins to stiffen (it should when cooled be crispy but not burned) and the walnuts are slightly toasted, drain of any excess oil and set to one side, keep the remaining oil.

7: remove the cinnamon stick and blend the soup, if using a jug blender you may need to split the mixture, add a little more salt and pepper if needed. Sieve the blended mixture to ensure that there are no fibrous pieces remaining, discard any that are.

8: the soup is now ready! Either serve piping hot as directed below or chill/freeze for later use, if doing the latter defrost or heat gently, do not allow boiling

9: Serving: After heating, stir in the 100g Engevita or Gruyere cubes and stir gently until evenly distributed, add half the garlic/walnuts and stir.

10: ladle the soup into bowls; add a tsp. of crème Fraiche, sprinkle over a tsp. of chopped parsley and a dsp. of the chopped walnuts and crisped garlic and a fair pinch of the Engevita /Gruyere and finally drizzle a little of the reaming olive/sesame.

Serve with warm crusty sourdough rolls, unsalted fresh churned butter and enjoy! (Available in Pembs from most local farmers markets; see Our Website for links, info and more great recipes from the ‘shire!)

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