Roasted Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

We recently made this soup using some leftovers from our weekly Oddbox. For anyone who hasn’t come across Oddbox- it’s an amazing initiative to rescue surplus/odd fruit and vegetables. We have been getting ours weekly since the start of the year with varying fruit and vegetables- depending on what needs to be rescued that week from farms- and this varies from purple carrots to kiwi berries!

That week, our oddbox had a chunky butternut squash and quite a lot of apples- so we turned this into an amazing, healthy soup- perfect for the upcoming Autumn! The soup also freezes well if there are any leftovers.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium butternut squash (ours was around 1.5kg)
• 6 apples
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 chicken stock cubes
• 2 red chilli peppers
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion
• 1 tbsp Cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
• 100ml double cream
• salt and pepper to taste

Method:

The soup doesn’t take too long to whip up- the only difficult bit is the squash prep! Instead of using pumpkin seeds you could use the seeds from the butternut squash itself- just be sure to clean these and make sure these are completely dried.

The recipe can be tweaked to suit your tastes and preferences- we added some chilli peppers and cayenne pepper but these can be left out or extra added depending on your preference and spice tolerance. We also use chicken stock cubes in the recipe- but for a vegetarian version you can obviously replace these with vegetarian stock cubes and the the double cream can also be replaced with a plant-based alternative for a vegan version.

1. Preheat the oven to around 200 degrees C. (around 400 degrees F). Whilst pre-heating, prep the butternut squash: slice lengthways and remove the seeds and the stringy flesh from each side using a spoon. We left the skin on as it will get roasted and this adds a bit more flavour. Then chop the butternut squash into chunks- around an inch long and a few centimetres wide. Add the chunks into a roasting tray.
2. Prep the apples- first, peel and core the apples, then cut into chunks. Add to the roasting tray.
3. Peel the garlic cloves and add whole to the roasting tray. During the roasting these will become golden and delicious!
4. Roughly chop the onions- they do not need to be finely sliced or diced as they will be blended later. Add to the roasting tray and then add the chilli peppers (if using). Mix everything well together, and drizzle over 1.5 tbsp of olive oil. Mix well again, then add to the oven once pre-heated.
5. Meanwhile, add the pumpkin seeds (or butternut squash seeds if using these instead) to a bowl, add the remaining olive oil and mix well. Spread out on a baking tray. Add to the oven once the butternut squash and apple chunks have already roasted for 30 minutes, then roast everything for another 10-15 minutes.
6. Remove both trays from the oven, and set aside the baking tray with the seeds to completely cool down. Boil 1litre of water, and combine this with the two stock cubes in a measuring jug, making sure the stock cubes are well dissolved. We have a Kenwood Titanium Chef (which we highly recommend!) which has a blender attachment- ThermoResist Glass blender- so we could blend the veg straight out of the oven- but please check whether your veg needs to cool down a bit first.
7. Add some of the roasted veg and some of the stock into the blender, and blitz until smooth. Once blended, add to a large pan on the hob, and then repeat with the remaining veg and stock in batches- until all blended and transferred to the pan
8. Gently bring to a simmer. Add the cream at this point, salt and pepper to taste and the cayenne pepper. Make sure everything is mix well.
9. After 5 minutes or so, the soup is ready to serve- just sprinkle the roasted seeds on top and enjoy!