The easiest,most comforting, Butternut Squash Soup

This is the perfect comfort food for January – it’s so simple to make, really good for you and
deliciously thick and moreish for those cold January days. The amount this recipe makes depends on the size of your butternut squash, but will feed at least three hungry people.

Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash
• Some good quality olive oil
• 1 small onion
• 1 generously heaped tbs of butter
• 1 tbs maple syrup
• 300ml to 500ml of vegetable stock
• Some crushed chilli flakes
• A bit of cream or natural yoghurt to finish

Method

1. Heat your oven to gas 5/160º fan. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Cut the butternut squash in half from top to bottom and scoop out the seeds.
3. Drizzle the inside of the squash liberally with olive oil and place it flat face down on the baking tray.
4. Roast in the oven for 40 to 50 minutes (depending on how large the squash is), until the inside is soft.The skin will crinkle slightly and start to brown.
5. Remove from the oven and leave until cool enough to handle – at least ten minutes.
6. While the squash is cooling, chop the onion.
7. Add the butter to a small frying pan over a medium heat, and when melted add the onion. Drizzle in the maple syrup and cook gently together until the onion has softened and the buttery mixture starts to brown. Remove from the heat.
8. Take the butternut squash halves and scoop the lovely soft insides into a bowl (throw the tough skins away). Add the softened onions in their sweet buttery mixture into the squash.
9. Blend using a stick blender until it is a smooth, glorious, thick and tasty mixture.
10. Loosen the mixture with the stock – just add until you have reached the consistency of soup you like (I used about 300ml of stock but I like a lovely thick soup and my butternut squash was quite small).
11. This soup will keep quite happily in the fridge for a couple of days. Just reheat in a small saucepan and finish with a drizzle of cream or natural yoghurt and some crushed chilli flakes.