Fall time is soup time

This weekend was the coldest and rainiest day we’ve had in Ottawa in a long time. It was perfect soup weather! So in the morning my girlfriend and I headed down to the super awesome Ottawa Farmer’s Market. There we picked up some of the ingredients that I needed for the soup. I got one of the biggest butternut squashes that I’ve ever seen, some really cool heritage carrots (they were purple on the outside and organ on the inside, how cool is that!!!) and some freshly picked onions. All of these awesome ingredients went into my favourite butternut squash recipe. I found this recipe in Jamie Oliver’s, Jamie At Home (pg.361, Jamie At Home, ISBN: 978-1-4013-2242-7). It’s a great recipe because it nice and quick and make a delicious soup, nice and squashy! This recipe quickly became a family favourite. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

HUGE Squash - Note the tiny teapot behind

Superb Squash Soup Serves 8+

Ingredients:

• Olive oil

• 16 fresh sage leaves
• 2 red onions, peeled and chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and
  chopped
• 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked
• 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 41/2 pounds of butternut squash
• 2 litters of vegetable or chicken stock

All kinds of veggies! Including purple - orange carrots

Directions:

1. Get the biggest pot you have and put it on medium heat. Add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot. Add sage lea
2. ves and fry for about 30 seconds or until dark green and crispy. Remove them and save them for latter.
3. The oil is now infused with the sage. Now add the onion, celery, carrot, garlic, rosemary leaves, chilli and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cook gently for about 10 minutes until the vegetables are soft.
4. Add the squash and the stock to the pan, bring to the boil and simmer for around half an hour or longer.
5. Once the squash is soft and cooked through, whiz the soup with an immersion blender or pour in
   to a standard blender and pulse until you have a smooth puree. Make sure to taste and season until it’s perfect.
6. When you want to serve top with fried sage leaves.
7. Serve and enjoy on a cold day!

Soup cooling, the spoon was for taste testing!

Finished product - one of many