Recipe: Butternut squash and sweet potato soup

Sometimes on a cold winter day all you need is a bowl of hot, thick, homemade soup to keep you going. There is always something very comforting about soup and this butternut squash and sweet potato soup will certainly give you that warm and cosy feeling!

Ingredients

• 500g sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
• 1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and diced
• 1 tablespoon clear honey
  1 tablespoon olive oil plus a little to drizzle over at the end
• 2 onions, peeled and chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, gently crushed
• 1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
• 100ml double cream
• small bunch of fresh chives, chopped finely
• pinch of black pepper
• pinch of salt

Method

1. Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Put the sweet potato and butternut squash on a baking tray and add the honey and a drizzle of olive oil. Roast for 40-45 mins until soft and starting to go brown and sticky around the edges, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, fry the onions in 1 tbsp olive oil until soft, then add the garlic, chicken stock, cumin and nutmeg. Bring to the boil, and simmer for 5 mins.
3. Remove the sweet potatoes and butternut squash from the oven and add to the pan with the stock. Blend everything until smooth using a stick blender. Stir in most of the cream and bring back to a gentle simmer, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Serve by drizzling a little cream over the soup, sprinkling the chopped chives and pinch of black pepper.

Enjoy!