12 Days of Christmas Recipes: Day 12
As the Christmas decorations come down, so the challenge to share 12 recipes with you over the 12 days of Christmas has come to an end. For the last recipe, given how cold it is, I thought you might like a lovely warming soup. This goes well with the Walnut Damper bread from Day 10. My lunch today in the hope that we warm up a bit – the house and weather are a bit chilly (-4 last night!).
Roasted Butternut Squash and Chickpea soup
Serves: 4. Prep time: 15 mins. Cooking time: 1 hr 15 mins + heating time
Ingredients
1 butternut squash
Olive oil
1 medium shallot (or 2 small)
2 cloves garlic
1 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tsp each cumin and coriander
1 – 1.2l vegetable stock
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Fresh parsley
Pumpkin or Butternut seeds*
Method
1: Preheat the oven to
2: Wash the butternut squash, cut in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds and stringy bits (don’t throw the seeds away)
3: Place the butternut squash halves in a roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil and a little pepper. Bake in the oven for 45-60 mins or until softened. Remove from the oven to cool a little.
4: Chop the onion and garlic and fry in a little olive oil until the onion is translucent and just beginning to turn golden.
5: Add cumin and coriander and cook for about a minute. Then add the chickpeas and cook for a further minute.
5: Scoop out the butternut flesh and add to pan with onions, garlic and chickpeas and stir to mix everything.
6: In two batches, add this and the stock to a food processor and blend until smooth. (Add 1 litre of stock to start with and then more depending on how thick you want the soup).
7: Return blended soup to a saucepan to heat through, season to taste.
8: Chop up the butternut skin and fry in a little olive oil for 2-3 minutes. Season with black pepper, add a handful of seeds and fry for a minute.
9: Serve the soup garnished with the butternut skin, seeds and chopped parsley.
*Keep the butternut seeds, rinse thoroughly to clean and leave to dry. When they are dry toast them with a tiny bit of oil and some seasoning in a pan or in the oven until golden. Delicious.
