During the block of snowdays recently, we did a lot of baking and soup making (see Our Snow Days Became Baking Days – Is The Gym Open Yet?), the kitchen became a hive of activity, partly to keep warm and partly for something to do! I’m going to attempt to post some of the recipes; I hope I can remember, or at least decipher the brief notes we scribbled down at the time! I always think the photos will be enough, or my Instagram posts listing the ingredients, but then I forget the quantities. So bear this in mind and don’t take the recipes too literally if you try them.
This soup came about because we had a butternut squash from our organic veg box that had been waiting a while to be used, but it was small, and I had bought some much-reduced leeks that needed using, plus there were a couple of cauliflower florets left from Sunday, when we’d used the rest of it, and the middle bit of a bunch of celery. They turned into a lovely warming soup on a freezing, snowladen day. My husband also made bread rolls that morning, which you can see in the photo, but they weren’t gluten-free, so I’m not featuring them here.
This soup is full of healthy ingredients and is anti-inflammatory. (Butternut squash provides vitamins A and C, B6, potassium, magnesium, iron and calcium, as do leeks). No cream or butter, just a little coconut oil.
As always, the recipes are vegan and gluten-free, organic where possible.
Makes enough for 4 servings.
Ingredients
Coconut Oil for frying
1 Small Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 Leek, trimmed, washed and sliced (keep as much of the greenery as is usable)
2 Cauliflower Florets, chopped
3 Large Carrots, scrubbed and chopped (peeled if not organic)
The middle stalks of Celery with leaves, chopped
Approx. 1.5 Pints Vegetable Stock, with 1 Tsp Yeast Extract dissolved in it
Half a Tsp each of Cumin, Ginger, Turmeric & Curry Powder
Black Pepper
Pink Himalayan Salt if required for taste when cooked
Method
Melt the oil until hot but not smoking
Add the spices and all the veg, mix well, add black pepper, place the lid on and sweat for a few minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally
Add the hot stock with the yeast extract, enough to cover the veg
Replace the lid, and cook on a low heat until the veggies are soft but not mushy, stirring occasionally.
Blend with a stick blender, leaving some texture to it, taste and adjust the seasoning
Serve with warm rolls or flat bread
Copyright: Chris McGowan
I spent an entire week confined to barracks because I can’t bear the minus temperatures and icy winds, or risk a fall on the ice. My husband couldn’t go out on his usual bike rides and we’d also chosen this week to have the hall parquet flooring restored, which meant open external doors. We had blizzard conditions here and the woodburner was our best friend. So was the oven. We spent the whole week cooking, but mostly baking, and if the weather doesn’t improve soon, I’ll be needing a bigger size in jeans!
My husband made bread rolls (and next day a wholemeal loaf), I made a Mango & Raisin Crumble with Oaty Topping, some Scones from the leftover crumble and some Curried Squash Soup! The next day I made a Coconut Cake.
My husband, on finishing the cake said ‘We should do this every week,’ to which I replied ‘I don’t think so, there’s no more room for my waistline!’ We even had crumble with Coconut Custard for late breakfast one morning, very decadent.
On Friday morning, my husband walked the mile to the gym in snow and icy winds for a spin class, but the only exercise he got was the walk there and back and the half hour in between, clapping his arms around his body trying to keep warm! The class was cancelled due to the snow, but the instructor was unable to contact him. He did get a free session out of it for the next week, though.
We are in the middle of some arctic weather, with snow, hail, icy winds and below zero temperatures, so I thought I’d post a recipe for a nourishing soup to warm us up, rather than the frozen smoothie bowl I had planned!
Serve with fresh basil leaves and warm bread or toast, or you might like to try 
We had a small squash in our veg box last week and this afternoon I was cold to the bone after venturing outside for a short walk – I think it was 5C – so I decided to use the squash in some soup. The squash had been sitting chopped up in the fridge for a couple of days and needed to be used. My husband does it for me and leaves it in the fridge so it’s available when I want to use it.
Cook on the lowest heat for about 25-30 minutes, until everything is cooked but not mushy.
Cauliflower is my favourite vegetable, but for some reason it doesn’t appear regularly on the family food order, so I find myself making a special request when I realise we haven’t had it for some time. Our local Waitrose isn’t too hot on organic foods and there’s no farmers’ market, so if we forget to include cauliflower in our weekly Ocado order, we have to wait another week.
We just had one of those midweek days when you have some bits of vegetables that are less than fresh and there’s not quite enough to use each on their own. When this happens, we don’t discard them, we make soup. In this instance, the weather had gone from scorching hot to wet, windy and distinctly chilly, so soup would be very welcome.
We had 2 butternut squash, several oranges and a lot of dried lemonbalm from our garden queuing up, begging to be used, so I decided to try some of them together. I’ve had squash with nutmeg, squash with cumin and squash with ginger, I wondered what squash with orange would be like.
Add a handful at a time, starting with the squash and carrots, then celery, stir-frying as you go until all are added.
pearsnotparsnipsdotcom 
You must be logged in to post a comment.