Sunshine Soup

A change of tone today. The sun is out, the sky is blue, there's not a cloud to spoil the view - and we're stuck inside since any movement causes Mog to go into spasm. We had friends for lunch today (and very tasty they were too!), so I decided to serve them this, my favourite soup. We might not be out in the autumn frosty sun but we can bring our own mellow fruitfulness right into the house.



This is a very simple soup. You need a butternut squash, an onion, a pear, a potato and seasonings to suit yourself. I like to add nutmeg and black pepper, but I forgot. It still tasted good.

First, cut your butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds.
Next, roughly chop the onion and fry it up in a large dollop of butter.

Let those fry for a few minutes, and as they turn a beautiful pale gold, start chopping the squash.


Add the squash to the onion and stir it well until it's coated with the butter and starting to fry around the edges. Now cover the squash with boiling water and leave to simmer gently.

Chop the potato and pear and add them into the mix. I like to add a bit of stock to the mix, but I didn't have any this morning. I also like to add mixed herbs, and if you like a bit of a tang to your food then a dash of worcester sauce doesn't hurt either. Leave it to simmer away until the potato and squash are squashily cooked.

Now take your blender and whizz the soup up until it is smooth. Doesn't that look delicious?

Normally at this point I would add the nutmeg and black pepper, coarsely ground black pepper adds a bit of texture.

For a final extra touch stir in a spoonful of creme fraiche or sour cream just before serving and serve with fresh crusty bread. In this case I didn't have either so have improvised with cream cheese and a white malted loaf, not quite the same thing. Still tastes good though!
When I'm not serving this to friends I like to serve it with a couple of spoonfulls of cooked rice. But people tell me that's weird so I save that for when we're alone.

Hope you enjoy it
Tia