A warming winter soup

This winter warming soup was a real winner for young people cooking with Arlene at Carrickfergus Cookery School, at Carrick YMCA. Made with seasonal butternut squash, sweet potato and a hint of chilli, it looked and tasted great!

They also made an amazing cheese and herb soda bread to serve with it-you can look out for this recipe next week.

Butternut squash and sweet potato soup

Serves: 4 Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30-45mins

Ingredients

1 large butternut squash (peeled, de-seeded and roughly diced)

2 medium sized sweet potatoes (peeled & roughly diced)

1 red chilli (finely diced)

1 medium sized onion (peeled & roughly diced)

3 clove of garlic (finely chopped)

300 ml vegetable stock

300 ml boiled water

salt and freshly ground black pepper

25ml of olive oil

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large pan and add the chopped onion. Cook with the lid on over a medium heat for five minutes, then add the chopped garlic and gently cook for a further two minutes or until softened.

2. Add the chopped butternut squash, sweet potatoes and chopped chilli to the pan.

3 Give all your veg a stir and leave it soften over a gentle heat with the lid on for around 5 -10 minutes.

4. With boiling water, dissolve your stock cube with 300 ml water and add to the pan.

Top up the pan with an extra 300 ml boiling water. Season with black pepper and stir.

5. Bring your soup to the boil and then leave to simmer for around 30 mins.

6. Once cooked, whizz your soup with either a hand blender or in a food processor. Check the seasoning and add more pepper or salt as required.

7. Delicious served with a dollop of creme fraiche.