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My best butternut soup recipe

My favourite recipe for butternut soup with warming spices of ginger and a dash of curry. You can roast the butternut before for added depth of flavour.

Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
1 hr
Course: Soup
Cuisine: South African

Ingredients

  • 1 medium butternut peeled, deseeded and cut
  • 1 large orange sweet potato peeled and cut into similar sizes to the butternut
  • 1 – 2  carrots chopped
  • 1 large leek or 2 celery stalks, or both, chopped
  • 1 large onion chopped
  • Olive oil and a knob of butter
  • A few sprigs parsley 
  • 2 – 3 bay leaves
  • 1 large piece of ginger grated about 6 cm
  • 2 small pieces turmeric grated or 1 tsp turmeric powder
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • Small pinch chilli flakes  optional
  • salt pepper
  • 1 tsp masala/curry powder of your choice
  • ½ tsp cumin
  • Approx 1 litre – 1 litre plus 250ml of vegetable stock I used 3 good stock cubes or 4 stock sachets to 1 litre/ 1.25 litres of water
  • Juice of 1 orange or 2 clementines
  • Cream to finish 
  • Dukkha to sprinkle or other toasted seeds and nuts

Instructions

    Cup of Yum
  1. Toss the butternut, sweet potatoes and carrots lightly in olive oil, spread out onto a baking tray and season with salt & pepper. Roast in an oven that has been preheated to 180C/350F for 35 – 40 minutes until they just start taking on some colour and are just cooked through. Alternatively, skip this step.
  2. In a large heavy-based pot add the olive oil and butter and sweat the onions/leeks/celery until soft. Put the lid on to generate some steam which helps the sweating.
  3. Once soft, add the bay leaves, parsley, garlic and spices and cook for a minute or two until fragrant and just starting to stick to the bottom of the pot
  4. If you are adding the roasted or uncooked vegetables do so now and immediately add the stock and orange juice. Cover and allow to simmer over a gentle heat for about 45 minutes. If the vegetables are uncooked, cook for about an hour. Take this off the heat, allow to cool slightly, or if you have a metal stick blender you can process this soup while it is still hot.
  5. Remove the bay leaves and then process the soup with a handheld stick blender or in a liquidiser/food processor until smooth.
  6. Serve with fresh cream/coconut cream and dukkha if you have. Chopped roasted nuts and seeds also work really nicely. A nice crusty loaf of bread is mandatory in my opinion too.

Notes

  • Butternut soup freezes really well. Just thaw and reheat in a small pot as needed.