Butternut Squash Soup

This butternut squash soup is the perfect comfort food for a cold or drizzly day - its so simple to make, really good for you and deliciously thick and moorish.The amount this recipe makes largely depends on the size of your butternut squash, but will feed 3 hungry people at least.

1 butternut squash

some good quality olive oil

1 small onion

1 generously heaped tbsp of butter

1 tbsp maple syrup

300ml - 500ml of vegetable stock

some crushed chilli flakes

a bit of cream or natural yoghurt to finish

Heat your oven to gas 5/160 fan. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Cut the butternut squash in half from top to bottom and scoop out the seeds.

Drizzle liberally the inside of the squash with olive oil and place the butternut squash on the baking tray with the inside flat side face down.

Roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes (depending on how large the squash is) until the inside is soft. The skin will crinkle slightly and start to brown.

Remove from the oven and let the butternut squash cool for 10+ minutes.

Whilst the squash is cooling, in a small frying add the butter onto a medium heat. Chop the onion into small pieces and add to the melted butter. 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.

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. Blend this mixture together using a hand blender until smooth. This will result in a glorious thick and tasty mixture. Loosen this mixture with the stock 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.

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.