Recipe: Butternut Squash and Parmesan Soup

Credit: Flickr/Baha’i Views / Flitzy Phoebe

Give your homemade butternut squash soup a kick of Parmesan

Butternut squash soup is rich and filling, and will warm you up on a chilly day

A clever way to stimulate the taste buds and add a salty-umami depth to a recipe is to add Parmesan cheese. This recipe comes from A New Way to Cook by Sybil Kapoor (Whitecap).


Ingredients

• 2 onions, roughly chopped

• 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped

• 1/2 tsp. chili flakes, or to taste (optional)

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil

• 2 medium butternut squash

• 4-1/2 cups chicken stock

• 1 bay leaf

• 3 sprigs fresh parsley

• Piece of Parmesan cheese rind

• 1/4 cup crème fraîche

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Roughly shaved Parmesan to serve



Instructions

1. Gently fry the onions, garlic and chili flakes in the olive oil in a large saucepan for about 10 minutes, or until soft and golden.
2. Meanwhile, cut off the tough skin of the butternut squash.
3. Scrape out and discard the seeds, then roughly chop the flesh and stir it into the sautéed onions.
4. Cover and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the squash begins to soften.
5. Add the stock, herbs and Parmesan rind and simmer gently for 45 minutes, or until the squash is meltingly soft.
6. Discard the herbs and Parmesan rind, scooping any gooey cheese into the soup.
7. In a blender, process the soup, add the crème fraîche and season to taste.
8. Serve piping hot scattered with Parmesan shavings.

Serves 6.

Recipe courtesy Caren McSherry from the Gourmet Warehouse
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Originally published in TV Week. For daily updates, subscribe to the free TV Week e-newsletter, or purchase a subscription to the weekly magazine.