Nigella food special:

Roast squash and

sweet potato soup with buttermilk blue cheese swirl

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It may seem a bit fiddly to have a soup prepared in two parts: one in the oven; one in the pan.



But I do this not only because I think it intensifies the flavour dramatically, but because it actually makes my life easier. The thing is this: when you roast a butternut squash, you can go ahead and liquidise it without ever having to peel it, and this is a real boon. Plus, I love the slightly flecked look that the spice-sized specks of skin give the soup, as well as the hint of texture.

The robust sweetness of this soup is countered by the buttermilk and blue cheese drizzling-mix that I swirl over the soup as I serve it and, indeed, I think it’s the two together that really make it.



Serves 8-10 as a starter, 6 as a main course



INGREDIENTS

1 onion peeled and roughly chopped

1 unpeeled butternut squash halved deseeded and sliced into 3cm x 2cm chunks

500g unpeeled sweet potatoes cut into 3cm rings

60ml olive oil

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg 1.5 litres vegetable stock such as Marigold

125ml marsala wine

salt and pepper

FOR SERVING

125g crumbled blue cheese

250ml buttermilk (if you can’t find buttermilk use a plain, runny – ie, not set – yogurt, such as Activia)



METHOD



Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/400F/gas 6. Put the chopped onion, chopped butternut and sweet potato (don’t worry that neither of these last two are peeled) on to a baking sheet. Drizzle the oil over them and sprinkle with the cinnamon and nutmeg, then roast in the oven for about 1-1¼ hours, by which time all should be tender. Remove from the oven. While the vegetables are still warm or at room temperature, liquidise them in 2 batches, adding 500ml of vegetable stock to each batch. Pour the blended vegetables into a saucepan. Swill another 500ml of vegetable stock in the blender to get out all the remnants of the soup, and pour into the pan. You have now added 1.5 litres of liquid to the vegetables. On reheating to serve, add the marsala and taste for seasoning. You may need to add up to another 500ml of water if the soup’s too thick for your liking. As the soup warms up, liquidise the

blue cheese and buttermilk in a clean blender and spoon into a jug or bowl. On serving, drizzle some of this mixture over each bowl. Leave the jug on the table for your guests to have more if they wish.