🍲 Butternut Squash Soup!

Hey Soup Enthusiast, 

Every so often me and my family have a vegetarian meal and butternut squash is one of my favorite ingredients used in vegi-meals. Now let’s take a look at todays soup!

🍲 Today's soup: Butternut Squash Soup

This warming, sweet, vegan soup with a good mix of flavorful spices is great for making a large amount of soup with little ingredients. Unfortunately, the flavor was too subtle and roasting the butternut squash would have enhanced the flavor.

Here is how I would cook it in the future. 

📝 Ingredients: Serves 8

• 2 onions finely chopped

• Olive oil

• 1 Tea-spoon garam masala

• 1 Tablespoon Black onion / Nigella seeds

• ½ Tea-spoon Ground cinnamon

• ½ Tea-spoon Cayenne pepper

• 2 butternut squash cut into small chunks

• 800ml vegi-stock

• Salt and pepper

Recipe 

1. Cut the butternut squash into cubes and roast on a lined baking tray with a sprig of rosemary at 190°C for approximately 20 to 25 minutes.

2. Fry the onions in oil until they soften

3. Add all the spices and fry for 3 minutes: (garam masala, Nigella seeds, Ground cinnamon and Cayenne pepper)

4. Add the roasted chunks of butternut squash and fry for 2 to 3 minutes

5. Add the vegi-stock and simmer for 30 minutes

6. Blend with a food processor, stick blender or equivalent

7. Garnish with a sprig of rosemary which was used to roast the butternut squash. Add salt and pepper, then serve.

Note 💡 - The skin of a butternut squash can only be eaten if roasted. crème fraîche could work well if you enjoy a creamer soup. You may see from the picture, we used some red onions, they did not add much flavor so normal onions work just fine.

🧈🥜 Ingredient of the week: Butternut Squash 

Butternut squash was the main theme of this soup so I have chosen butternut squash as the ingredient of the week. I challenge you use butternut squash in your cooking this week. If you make a soup, sauce or soup-based meal, with the ingredient of the week, you could have the chance of featuring in our next Community Showcase! 

Fact - Butternut squash was bred from crookneck squash, which was the preferred variety until commercial food distribution became the norm. Since then butternut squash became more popular due to it being more compact & easier to transport.

👩‍🍳 Today's community showcase 

1. Hit reply and add a picture of your soup, sauce or soup-based meal.

2. Add your insight such as a recipe or tip for the community.

3. Send us your email!

Want a shoutout? Type "Use my name [Your Name]".

🌍 Beyond the ladle: Soup news highlights

Better images for the Soup & Sauce newsletter

When taking the photo’s for this weeks newsletter, I used my phone camera as it takes a much higher quality of picture with my skill and lighting level. Unfortunately, the color isn’t exactly right due to the saturation of the photo. I am looking into my camera and it seems like lighting will play a big role in using a camera for food photography. The lighting I use now is too dark which makes the photo grainy and low quality.

General improvements

I am still putting in the time to make the email and overall experience more engaging and better for the community. Spelling and grammar has always been a struggle for me. Even with spell check. One suggestion I have had is a proof reader. You may not see much difference yet but we need to add the ingredients before stirring the pot.

If you have any suggestions, I would be delighted to hear them. 👍

🚀 Your turn to stir the pot 

What’s your favorite vegetarian ingredient for soups? Hit reply and let's stir the pot together! Your insights might just spark the next big flavour in our community. 

 Your soup journey awaits,
Sean
Soup & Sauce

🍜 P.S. Soup hack alert! 

Roast the butternut squash not only to add flavor but, to allow the skin to be eaten and save time on peeling it. 😉