Roast Butternut Squash soup

I really thought I was going to O.D. on this soup this past winter. It's super easy and delish, and lasts at least 3 days in fridge. This is my low fat version, but it can be bigged up, for a dinner party easily by adding coconut milk and serving with my goats cheese crostini or cheesy garlic bread croutons!

Ingredients

• 1 butternut squash, diced
• 2 sliced carrots
• 1 clove garlic
• salt/pepper
• olive oil
• 1 litre of chicken stock
• 2 tbsp cumin seeds
• Diced onion
• 2 sticks celery finely chopped
• Chopped Coriander

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees
2. Put the squash and carrots in a roasting tin, with oil and pepper and cumin
3. Roast for 25 mins
4. Saute the onions, and celery and minced garlic
5. Add the roasted vegetables
6. Add 1 litre of chicken stock (or vegetable if vegetarian)
7. Simmer for 10 minutes
8. Add half the coriander and whizz up with an electric hand blender, or blend in batches
9. Season to taste and add remaining coriander

To really impress, see my post of how to make puff pastry stick, a work of moments but really impressive and serve instead of bread. Not an everyday treat, but gives that extra something something when serving soup as a starter to dinner guests. I actually made the soup with coconut milk and these herby puff sticks as a starter for our last family Christmas Dinner