Cumin, chilli & butternut squash soup topped with toasted mushrooms & extra virgin olive oil

Autumn: the weather is crisp and cooler and we can start introducing comforting foods back into our life. I love making soups and switching it up by roasting different seasonal ingredients with the added joy of using homemade stock.

Butternut squash helps support the immune system, so this recipe is a great one for this time of year! Enjoy.

Ingredients (Recipe makes around 5 portions of soup / 2 litres soup)

1 butternut squash cut into 1 inch chunks

½ lemon juiced

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2 carrots diced

1 onion diced

1 potato diced

3 garlic cloves chopped

3 celery stalks diced

½ tablespoon cumin seeds

¼ - ½ tablespoon chilli flakes (up to you)

1 tablespoon butter

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750ml homemade veg stock (ingredients below)

250ml carton coconut milk

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Handful seasonal mushroom (I used Speckled Chestnut)

Ingredients for the veg stock

The Butternut squash seeds & insides

1 stick of celery diced plus the tops and base from the soup ingredients

1 carrot diced plus the tops and base from the soup ingredients

1 inch ginger

1 onion halved with skin on

½ bulb garlic with skin on

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

1 tablespoon salt

1.2 litres water

Method

~Coat the butternut squash with some oil, lemon and salt & pepper and place in a roasting tin. Cover with foil and bake at 200c for 1hr 15 mins.

~Bring the veg stock ingredients to the boil, cover with a lid and simmer for 1hr.

~Add butter and a little oil to a separate pan. In it sweat the onion, potato, carrot, celery, garlic, cumin seeds, chilli flakes for around 15 minutes. Then add the roasted butternut squash.

~From the stock pan, scope out the onion from the skin and add that to the soup pan.

~Sieve the veg stock and add 750ml to the soup pan along with the coconut milk. Keep the remaining veg stock back for another meal!

~Simmer the soup until everything is soft for about 15 minutes. Let it cool slightly then blend until smooth.

~Toast and brown some mushrooms in a frying pan without butter or oil (I used speckled chestnut) for a good few minutes until they smell delicious then add a little butter to coat them.

~Serve the soup with the mushrooms and some extra virgin olive oil drizzled on top.

Recipe by Becky @onlylovekitchen