Butternut Squash Soup, by mhaithaca, under Creative Commons

Weekends follow a depressingly boring rhythm at the moment… Wake up late; have breakfast at a supermarket cafe on the way to the old house (long story); get there some time after lunch; work until six; and then eat a kebab on the way home.

So, I hatched a plan. Get down there early and use the wonderful kitchen to make a healthy lunch. Butternut squash was obviously the answer…

• 2 bulbs of garlic
• Olive oil
• 4 lbs of Butternut Squash
• 1 yellow onion
• 2 mid-sized Sweet Potatoes
• Sea salt
• Fresh Pepper
• 800ml of Chicken Stock
• 200ml of Single Cream
• 100g of grated Parmesan

Turn the oven to 200c.

Slice the squash length-wise into quarters or eighths, and scoop out the seeds. Peel the sweet potatoes and slice into wedges. Put them in a roasting pan with a drizzle of oil. You know what, I have no idea what quantity of oil a drizzle is either, but since I have no idea how much oil I poured on, it’s about even.

Peel, top and tail the onion. Peel the loose white layers off the garlic, and put the top off so the flesh is just visible. Put them all in a bundle of foil with a drop more oil. Put it on the roasting pan.

Put the whole lot into the oven for an hour.

When it comes out, you will need to blend it into soup. The onion goes in whole. The sweet potato goes in whole. The squash needs to have the flesh scooped out of the skins. Finally the garlic needs to be squeezed out of the paper. That’s all pretty dry, so blend it with the chicken stock, cream and cheese.

By the time you’ve done all that, it’s probably cooled down quite a bit, so stick it on the hob to warm up. Oh, and serve it with crusty bread…

Makes about 8-10 bowls…

Tags: butternut squash, chicken stock, garlic, onion, parmesan cheese, single cream, snack, soup, starter, sweet potato