As the bright orange and yellow leaves begin to turn and a cooling breeze fills the air, suddenly hearty, warming soups become incredibly inviting once more. The farmers market here in Glastonbury, is beginning to fill up with squashes and pumpkins, with their gorgeous assortment of shapes and colours. I just can’t resist bringing them home and lining them up on my kitchen counter. It inspires me to create delicious meals with them, whenever the moment calls. This week, I felt to celebrate by sharing a super easy, delicious coconut inspired, squash soup with you.

I do love to bake my squash, as this brings out the best in it’s sweet – earthy, caramely flavour. There is very little time involved in making this soup… most of which involves popping it the oven and waiting for the squash to bake. The ingredients are also simple and easily available. As you can probably see by the photo, I like this one to be super thick and creamy. The thicker and creamier the better!

Blending tips for this thick, creamy soup

You’ll need some sort of a blender to make it smooth. Ideally a large, high powered, jug blender or big food processor. If you have a high powered blender (like a blendtec or vitamix) then you don’t even need to peel off the skin when the squash has cooked, saving time – yay! You just pop it all in the jug and keep blending (perhaps using your tamper too to get it started) until it reaches the creamy consistency that you desire. Add more or less water, depending on what you prefer. If you only have a hand blender (immersion blender) then worry not, because that’s absolutely fine too. I would just invite you to scoop out the squash from the skin before blending. Then you pop all of the ingredients into a pan and blend there instead of in the jug. If you don’t have a blender at all, then it can still work! Just scoop out the squash once baked and use a potato masher to thoroughly mash it (which will create a most rustic, but equally delicious soup).

Let’s make this and enjoy!

Creamy Coconut Squash Soup with Ginger (vegan) Yield: 4 bowls Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 1 hour Total Time: 15 minutes A simple, yet delicious creamy coconut, squash soup with warming ginger & coriander spices. Naturally vegan and gluten-free, as always. Print Ingredients 1 large butternut squash (1.5kg approximately)

400ml (1 can) full-fat coconut milk

400ml water (add more or less depending on consistency you prefer)

2 cloves of garlic

1 inch cubed of fresh ginger

1 heaped teaspoon sea salt

1 larch pinch of black pepper

1 heaped teaspoon ground coriander Optional extras - add any of the following 2 large handfuls of baby spinach

1 large hand full of fresh coriander leaves (USA: cilantro)

1 cup of cooked chickpeas (or a 400ml can, drained) Instructions Slice your butternut squash in half. Scoop out and discard the seeds. Pop it into an oven at gas mark 7 (220C/425F) for about 45 minutes (or until you can pierce a fork into it). In the meantime... Peel the ginger and finely grate it. Crush and finely chop your garlic cloves. Once the squash has baked Take the squash out of the oven and allow to cool a little (until you can handle the heat). Take off any stalk ends and slice through several times and then pop into your large jug blender. If you have a powerful blender, then you can leave the skin intact, otherwise you might prefer to scoop out the squash first, and discard the skin. Pour in the coconut milk and water. Toss in the crushed garlic and finely grated ginger. Add salt, pepper & coriander. Securely place the lid on your blender and blend until creamy smooth. It will be quite full, so you may need to use your tamper tool to press it down (or use a spoon between pulses, just to help it initially blend down, if needed). Pop into a pan. Add any extras and gently cook on the stove for a further 10 minutes, placing a lid on, between frequent stirring. This extra 15 minutes is necessary to cook the garlic, to heat through any extras and help the flavours dance together.If you don't want to add any extras, then you would probably be better off gently cooking your garlic first. The easiest way to do this is to bake it for to minutes along with the squash. Be sure, however, not to over bake the garlic, because it won't taste too good if you do. 10 minutes should be enough. Then simply blend, make sure it's hot enough to eat and serve right away.

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