Orange Squash Soup!
This is my absolute favourite soup, and it's vegetarian and vegan friendly. A more accurate and descriptive title for it would probably be Carrot and Squash Soup with Coriander, Ginger and Orange but that's a bit long winded really, isn't it?
For some reason my local supermarket was selling butternut squash cheap today and I was really craving something comforting so I decided to make it. Ideally it would be nicer to make when butternut squash is actually in season because it's the perfect summer to autumn food kick.
Everytime I make this I think that I am missing something because it seems so deceptively complicated. Really it's about time I wrote it down. I don't know where I found it but there a lot of variations online, and I have messed around with it a good deal over the past few years. Really once you have the basic carrot, squash, and ginger trinity, the sky is the limit. Today for example, I'm using a pinch of turmeric but it's not necessary, it should mostly just affect the colour. Anyone have any other ideas for it?
You Will Need:
1 Medium-Large Butternut Squash
6 Medium Carrots (I like to have a roughly equal amount of carrot and squash)
2 Celery sticks
1 Large Onion
1 inch cubed of ginger
2 cloves of garlic
100 ml Orange juice
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 vegetable stock cube
teaspoon of coriander powder
1 small red chilli/chilli powder or chilli flakes to taste (optional)
Salt/Pepper to taste.
Fresh coriander to serve, if you have it.
1) Finely dice your onion, garlic, ginger, celery and the optional chilli pepper. Heat your soup saucepan and spray with a little oil. Add these veg to the saucepan to make your soup base and stir them around briskly as if you were stir frying. Now add half a cup of water before the veg turn anything more than golden. You do *not* want the garlic to burn. As you prep your other vegetables keep adding a little water to the saucepan so it doesnt stick or burn. I use water because it's healthier and I dont like using too much refined or processed oils. It's also easier to monitor. You could by all means use some vegetable or groundnut oil, whatever you personally like to use when saute-ing.
2) Dice your squash and carrot. The squash cooks pretty fast so you can dice it about 1 inch cubed. THe carrots dont matter but I usually roughly chop them about half a centimetre thick. Just make them half the size or smaller than the squash. Add these to the pan and stir around so everything gets some heat.
3) Next, mix your stock cube with some water. I don't know why but I always use cold water to mix my stock cubes. Add to saucepan. Add orange juice, and the chopped tomatoes. Fill the saucepan with water til the veg is just covered. Add the teaspoon of coriander powder. Season with salt and pepper.
4) Bring everyhting to the boil and then reduce to a simmer to let the veg cook down. Everything should be soft and supple within 40-50 minutes. I like to blend the soup with a handheld blender once it has cooked down.
5) Serve with some sprigs of fresh coriander. Yum!