This is a blessedly easy soup to make, just cut big slices of butternut squash and arrange them on a sheet of oiled foil with halved unpeeled onion and garlic. Onion and garlic have their skin discarded, then everything is liquidized with hot stock for several minutes to breakdown the squash skin. I passed mine through a sieve to catch the inevitable scorched bits of skin and adjusted the seasoning with lime, salt and pepper. Couldn’t be simpler and actually a very pleasing golden bowlful that could be added to with diced tomato and prawns or cooked chicken and whatever soft herbs you fancy, to turn it into a more substantial soup. It is also very good with a separately cooked soft-poached egg.
Serves 4
Prep: 20 min
Cook: 45 min
1 butternut squash
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions (mine were red)
4 big garlic cloves
750ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 lime or lemon
Slice the squash in 5cm thick rounds, discarding any seeds and fibrous strands. Arrange on a foil-lined, lightly oiled heavy-duty roasting sheet. Halve the onions through their root and place them in the middle of the squash, the lightly cracked garlic right in the middle. Roast covered with a loosely placed piece of foil at 200C for about 25 minutes or until squash and onions are soft, the skin of some pieces of squash slightly scorched. Pinch off onion skin, trim ends and squeeze garlic out of the skins. Liquidize in batches with hot stock. Pass through a sieve (or not), scraping underneath so nothing is wasted. Reheat and season to taste with salt and lime or lemon juice. That’s it.