Cinderella soup...

For the past couple of months I had this butternut squash hiding in the kitchen always avoiding the deadly blade of my sharp Sabatier knives, well tonight I finally caught it and threw a spell on it, that turned it into... not a pumpkin, but a delicious soup. You see winter seems to have come back here (after a false attempt at summer last Saturday with temperatures up to 27 C) and what better way to ward off the winter blues than a warm squash soup?

Pumpkin soup

Ingredients

1 medium size squash

6 garlic cloves not peeled

2 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced

1 pinch of cumin powder

3 pinches of freshly grated nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh parsley for decoration

Mix of sour cream and fresh cream (should be liquid)

Method

Peel and remove the seeds from the squash then dice it

Place squash dices in an oven proof dish and sprinkle with olive oil

Place unpeeled cloves of garlic on top of squash

Bake in pre-heated oven 395 F for 40 mn, after approx. 20mn remove the garlic and set aside, toss the squash to ensure it is cooked through out and is not burning.

While squash is finishing to bake, in Le Creuset Dutch oven or any pan with thick bottom pour some olive oil and lightly brown the thinly sliced shallots adding the cumin and nutmeg, then pour over the squash adding chicken stock or water to cover completely (if you do not have readily available chicken stock 1 or 2 cubes of chicken stock in the water will be just as fine).

Add peeled roasted garlic then salt and pepper to taste and let it simmer for 30mn to an hour then use the immersion blender to purée the soup.

At this point taste the soup and adjust seasoning, a little brown sugar can enhance the taste.

Serve hot with cream mix, additionally you can sprinkle a bit of freshly cut parsley for presentation.

I usually freeze the left over (if any!), for the next winter day...

Enjoy