Crafting Soup: Part Two

And why you must wash your hands thoroughly when making Roasted Butternut Squash, Red Pepper and Chorizo soup

Dec 01, 2023

There is something very comforting about orange coloured soup. I think it’s because it gives off wholesome, autumnal vibes, and let’s face it, no matter the time of year, we all need some of those.

I remember first having Butternut Squash and Red Pepper soup whilst sat in a very cold Kings Cross Station as I waited to catch the train home. Having lived in London for years, stations were familiar meeting points, and for a few years after I moved away, I was still on autopilot whenever I visited. But on this particularly chilly December evening, it no longer felt quite so familiar. And that was strangely sad and a little disorientating. Usually I would seek out one of my favourite places to eat before I headed back up north, but this time, whilst I was hungry none of those eateries appealed. I thought I’d just grab a sandwich, but on the menu they had a delightful selection of soups. Spicy Thai Coconut Chicken would usually be right up my street as would creamy Spinach, Watercress and Pine Nut, but it was the Butternut Squash and Red Pepper soup that spoke to my need for bit of warming comfort.

It was rich and earthy with a sweet, smokiness that just added to the cosiness. It was silky with a drinkable quality, but not watery. And it wasn’t just my hands that were being warmed. Of course, once I was home, I knew I had to make some of this delicious soup for myself. But this is where my hand washing warning comes in, especially if you’re working with light coloured yarn. Because I did wash my hands, but for some reason, the butternut squash seems to defy what I would usually consider a good hand wash. What I thought were clean hands weren’t and my cream coloured yarn went a little peachy!

And then came the day when I had a butternut squash and some red peppers languishing in my fridge and I’d run out of paprika. What I did have though was some chorizo that I needed to use up. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but nothing ventured as they say!

Needless to say it was a success and with successive tweaks, I think I’ve reached what I would consider to be a very nice soup recipe. But as with all my recipes, I will always recommend variations for certain ingredients. If you don’t eat pork you can use smoked chicken and add more paprika or if you’re vegan/vegetarian you can use the vegan chorizo alternative of your choice. Or you can simply leave the chorizo out altogether! The recipe also calls for soured cream, but you can add any plant based cream substitute. And please let me know your favourite vegan alternatives so that I can try them out for future recipes.

Now for the important part: how to make it!

Roasted Butternut Squash, Red Pepper and Chorizo soup

Serves 4 (or 2 depending on the size of your mug), but you can make a bigger batch if you wish.

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Serving suggestion: Warm, buttered bread of your choice.

Ingredients:

1 kg butternut squash cubed.

1 large red pepper (bell pepper)

1 medium onion (yellow or brown)

100g of chorizo (sliced or cubed) or alternatives

1 teaspoon of paprika (optional)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Olive oil to drizzle over the vegetables before roasting

Salt and black pepper to season vegetables

Thyme (4 or 5 sprigs or 1/2 teaspoon of dried)

A handful of flat leaf parsley

150ml soured cream (or vegan alternative)

1.25ltrs of water or vegetable stock, but I prefer the cleaner taste that water adds

Salt to taste at the end.

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180C/350f
Cut the butternut squash into 1 inch chunks. You can peel it, but the skin has a lovely nuttiness once roasted. You can also roast the seeds to add as a garnish or just to nibble on later.
Cut the red pepper into chunks, removing any seeds.
Cut the onion into similar sized chunks and spread out on a baking sheet.
Toss the butternut in the olive oil, salt and pepper and add in the thyme before laying on top of the onion
Place in the oven for 35 to 45 minutes until the butternut squash is tender. Keep an eye on it though and move around a bit whilst cooking as you don’t want anything to burn.
Chop the sliced chorizo (or alternative) into strips or cubes and fry off in a large heavy bottomed saucepan to render off some of the smokey paprika infused oil. Add a little extra oil if you’re using slices as it will cook down and crisp up quickly. Set aside about a quarter of the chorizo for garnishing.
Remove any woody thyme stems before adding the roasted vegetables and black pepper to the pan with the chorizo and pour in your water/stock. Bring this to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. This will help the smoky flavours of the chorizo to further leech into the liquid.
Chop and add the flat leaf parsley before using an immersion blender to blitz everything together.
Taste the soup for seasoning and if you think it needs it, add in some more paprika.
Allow to stand for 5 minutes before stirring in the soured cream. Check the seasoning again. If it’s a little too thick for your liking, add a bit of water, but again check the seasoning.
Stir through the chorizo that was set aside and serve with warm bread of your choice and enjoy!

Leftovers:

This soup will keep for up to 3 days in the fridge or a month in the freezer. Just make sure it is defrosted before you reheat and make sure it is piping hot (without boiling) before serving.

I hope you’ll give this recipe a try and let me know what you added/took out to make this soup your own. And I hope you’ll join me in a couple of weeks for the next soup in this series which will be the simplest spicy parsnip soup you ever did make.

Until next time…