The recipe is from Hugh Fearnley –Whittingstall’s Much More Veg.
This is a deliciously creamy soup perfect for a cold night. It is easy to make: the veg are simply roasted then blitzed. It is fantastic finished with a trickle of good balsamic vinegar and a dollop of crème fraiche.
INGREDIENTS
1 small to medium cauliflower (about 700 grams)
600 grams (half) of a butternut squash
1 large onion, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled but left whole
2 tablespoons roughly chopped sage, plus a few finely ribboned leaves to finish
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 litre hot vegetable stock
Sea salt and black pepper to taste
To Finish
Balsamic vinegar
Crème fraiche
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius.
Trim the very end of the stalk for the cauliflower and any damaged or tough outer leaves. Then, roughly chop the rest of cauliflower – stem, leaves and all – and put into a large roasting tray.
Peel and deseed the butternut squash, then cut into bite sized chunks. Add these to the tray with the onion, garlic and sage. Drizzle the oil, season with salt and pepper and mix well.
Roast for about 45 minutes until the vegetables are soft and nicely caramelised, turning them over halfway through. Make sure there is good colour on the cauliflower especially –this adds to the flavour of the finished soup.
Place all the roasted veges into a pot with the stock. Using an immersion blender, blitz the vegetables until smooth and creamy. You may want to add a touch of hot water to thin the soup a little.
Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed, and reheat if necessary.
Ladle the soup into warmed bowls, put a spoonful of crème fraiche and splash some balsamic onto each serving. Then add a little finely ribboned sage, ground pepper and few grains of sea salt.
Serves 6-8