Butternut Squash and Pear Soup (and Ronnie Corbett's bread - yummy)

Butternut squash and Pear Soup

From this:

(Full list of ingredients at the end)

To this:

 

Soup of the Day today is my favourite so we shall be making extra portions just to make sure there’s enough for us later.

You’ll need quite a large pan – one which holds about six or eight pints – for this gorgeous soup.  Put about two tablespoons of butter into the pan and warm until melted.  You can use margarine if you want, or if you are Vegan, then the oil of your choice but olive oil doesn’t work very well . 

Peel and chop a large onion or two smaller ones then add them to the butter and leave them to cook until tender. 

Whilst the onion is cooking, grab yourself a butternut squash, peel it and throw away the seeds. You should have around a pound of squash, give or take an ounce or two.  Don’t ask me what that is in metric, you’ll have to work that one out for yourself.  Chop it up and put on one side.          

Then, peel, core and chop two pears, yes, pears and put them with the squash. 

You will also need some fresh thyme leaves (you can use dried if you don’t have fresh, but dried isn’t as good), white pepper – pot at the ready, and maybe some salt, but not necessarily.

When the onion is nice and soft you should add a pint of stock (that’s 20 fluid ozs or 2 cups) – chiken stock works best, but if you are vegetarian then maybe vegetable stock? You can either make your own, buy it ready-made from the supermarket, or, the easiest and most convenient way is to use a stock cube from the pantry and pour on a pint of boiling water.  These can be salty so don’t add any salt until you have tasted the soup when it’s made.

Stock added, you can then put in the squash, pear and thyme.  Sprinkle in about ¼ teaspoon of white pepper and whack up the heat until it boils, then turn it down again, cover the pan and simmer until the squash is tender, this should take about 15 minutes.

When it’s cooked, remove from the heat and liquidise. Then add about two teaspoons-full of garam masala, give it a good stir and taste. You can add more of the spice if you think it needs it.  You can also add salt if you like more seasoning.When it’s nice and smooth, add about half-a-pint of double cream (or, if you prefer something a little less rich in cholesterol, you can use single cream or milk even.)  If you are vegan, you will need your oat milk here.  You can make the soup as thick or runny as you so desire by adjusting the amount of white stuff you put in.

So there you have it, scrummy, yummy Butternut Squash soup.  You can also make it using a pumpkin which are plentiful around Halloween, especially after the event.  

I like this soup best with warm, stone-ground bread – try Ronnie Corbett’s recipe – it’s delicious.  He'll show you how to make it if you click here.



Ingredient recap:

1 large onion

2 tablespoons of butter or similar fat

1 pint stock

1 pound butternut squash

2 pears

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

White pepper

Garam Masala

Cream or milk

For stone-ground bread ingredients - click here 

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