Jamie Oliver said his spiced butternut squash soup is “totally delicious”, but I would totally disagree.
I spent 55 minutes putting this soup together and, yes, that is the allocated time given in the recipe.
And it’s not as if I don’t like the taste of butternut squash, because I do.
In fact, I’ve had an ex-partner who has made me much more delicious butternut squash soup than this version I put together.
But whether it’s the recipe or the cook to blame, you can decide which one if you make Jamie Oliver’s recipe below.
Recipe
Serves: eight
Cook ins: 55 mins
Ingredients:
- Two red onions
- Two carrots
- Four cloves garlic
- Two sticks of celery
- One fresh red chilli
- Two sprigs fresh rosemary
- Olive oil
- 16 fresh sage leaves
- Two kg butternut squash, onion squash or musque de Provence
- Two litres organic chicken or vegetable stock
- Extra virgin olive oil
For the croutons
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 16 slices of ciabatta bread
- Parmesan cheese
Method
1. Peel and finely chop the onions, carrots and garlic, then trim and finely chop the celery. Deseed and finely chop the chilli. Pick and finely chop the rosemary.
2. Heat a couple of lugs of olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, add the sage leaves and fry for 30 seconds, or until crisp, then remove to kitchen paper.
3. Place the pan of flavoured oil back on the heat, add the onion, carrot, garlic, celery, chilli, rosemary and sea salt and black pepper, then cook gently for 10 minutes, or until sweet and soft.
4. Meanwhile, halve, deseed and rough chop the squash. When the time’s up, add the squash and stock to the pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
5. For the croutons, drizzle a little olive oil over the ciabatta, pat it in, then finely grate and press some grated Parmesan onto each side. Place in a dry, non-stick pan and fry until golden on both sides.
6. When the squash is tender, whiz the soup with a stick blender or pour it into a blender and pulse to a smooth purée – leave it slightly chunky, if you prefer.
7. Season with salt and pepper, then divide between bowls, placing two croutons on top of each.
8. Sprinkle with a few crispy sage leaves and drizzle with a swirl of extra virgin olive oil, then serve.
Following Jamie Oliver’s recipe, there are some nice flourishes I have picked up, like frying sage leaves, which tastes rather wonderful.
And frying ciabatta bread with olive oil and cheese most definitely is going to be on my menu again with another meal.
