Chuck it in the tin butternut squash, chorizo and butter bean soup

I made this for a foodie trade fair where I was required to cook and bake for 12 hours straight each day. Hugely daunted by the prospect of feeding hordes of buyers looking for the perfect garlic crusher to bestow upon their customers, I did what any sensible girl might have done and introduced chorizo to the equation. This soup was snaffled faster than I could whizz it up with the stick blender. Me, well I love it because it delivers chorizo-flavoured punch without the texture, which I’ve never been too keen on.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 3 cm cubes

2 medium onions, peeled and quartered

1 teaspoon groundnut or vegetable oil

225g chorizo sausage, cut into slices

1 chicken stock cube, crumbled

1 teaspoon ground black pepper

800ml water, boiling

410g tinned butter beans, drained and rinsed

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 200°C. Chuck everything except for the butter beans and the water into a roasting tin and roast in the oven for 30 minutes until the butternut squash is tender.

Tip everything from the roasting tin into a large saucepan, add the water and blend with a stick blender until smooth. If you don’t have a stick blender pour the mixture into a food processor, whizz until smooth and pour back into the saucepan. Turn the heat to low, add the butter beans and cook for 5 minutes until heated through. Serve with some bread, which can be spread with a little harissa paste if you’re a heat fiend.

IDEAS FOR BUTTERNUT SQUASH

Roast cubes of squash for 30 minutes at 200°C then mash up and add some black pepper, salt and chopped coriander to make a slightly sweet mash. Or try making a speedy cheat’s Thai curry using a bought paste – just fry off the paste with some onions, add some cubed squash and a tin of coconut milk, simmer for 20 minutes until the squash is tender and add a handful of frozen peas to cook off right at the end.

#normalmum #butternut #chorizo #butterbean #soup #sop