It feels like almost everyone we've been chatting to recently has said how much they are looking forward to the arrival of Autumn! People seem to be craving cosier evenings by the fire and all the beautiful change in colours that this season ushers in. We've been wanting to test out a lot more soups for Autumn and Winter and now that squashes are starting to pop up in all our local farm shops we decided a squash soup was in order!
This soup is irresistibly nutty with a hint of sweetness running through it that's nicely balanced out by some warming spices. This is a great soup to batch cook at the weekend and then part freeze and enjoy throughout the week for lunch or a light supper. We added sweet potatoes, carrots and cauliflower, all of which add to the lovely sweetness and creaminess of the recipe.
We love croutons and these are a great addition if you want to make the soup a little bit more indulgent. They only take 10-12 minutes to prep and cook and we wanted to highlight and celebrate #SourdoughSeptember so we used some delicious potato and rosemary sourdough. An alternative topping to croutons could be crispy chickpeas and we made some of these too- they were also an excellent addition to a courgette salad we made- and we'll write up the recipe for that shortly.
Spiced Squash Soup with Sourdough Croutons and Crispy Sage Leaves:
Ingredients:
2 tbsp good quality rapeseed oil or olive oil
1 large onion, diced
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger or 1 heaped tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 large sweet potato roughly chopped- leaves the skin on
2 large carrots, roughly chopped,
1/2 a large squash- you can choose which variety, cut into bite size chunks
1/2 a cauliflower- include the leaves too! cut into small florets
1 bay leaf
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp medium curry powder
4 garlic cloves, peeled
1.5 litres of vegetable stock
Salt & Pepper
Method:
In a couple of large roasting trays toss all the vegetables in the oil and add all the spices. Roast for around 40 minutes at 180, turning and tossing them half way through cooking.
Transfer to a blender and in batches, blend with the vegetable stock. Check the seasoning. You may wish to add more spices too, or a tad more turmeric for the glorious golden colour!
For the croutons, simply slice 4 pieces of sourdough bread into bite size squares, toss with some olive oil and then roast at 180 for 10 minutes.
For the crispy sage leaves, coat the bottom of a frying pan with extra-virgin olive oil, when hot, add sage leaves in a single layer. They'll crisp up in about 30 seconds. Remove them with a slotted spoon. Put them on a plate lined with kitchen paper, then transfer them to a serving plate. Sprinkle immediately with salt to taste.
Ladle the soup up and add a few croutons and sage leaves for each bowl.
