Creamy roasted butternut squash & carrot soup (dairy-free)

Alright here we go, my first recipe of 2017! I’ve had a very busy last couple of weeks in 2016, including a yearly visit to my family in Belgium for the holidays. I hadn’t actually even cooked anything for those 2 weeks apart from the Christmas day appetisers so I’m only too happy to be getting back to blogging and cooking! Unlike last year there won’t be many changes on my blog, apart from one thing: I’ll be offering more options for people with allergies, intolerances and lifestyle choices.

My very first recipe of 2017 is gluten free, vegan, vegetarian and dairy free! And I promise you, you won’t even notice that you’re having soy cream instead of normal one, but you can of course just as easily replace it with normal cooking cream made from milk.

For some reason I’m very new to making my own soups, having only made 4 soups before (although I do make my beetroot soup every autumn). But I figured it was time to make some more, with the first one being a soup made from roasted butternut squash and a few carrots. I really am over the moon with the result, it’s so creamy, not too thick, not too thin but unfortunately I did break my hand mixer while making it, but oh well, that means I get to buy myself a new, which is always fun too!

Apart from making you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, this soup is also a good healthy boost! Butternut squash is a well-known source of beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant that gives orange vegetables and fruits their vibrant color. Once eaten it’s converted into vitamin A. Eating beta-carotene can reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer and can offer protection against asthma and heart disease. But other than that it’s also a great source of potassium and vitamin C.

Butternut squash is also great for your skin because it of its extremely high vitamin A content, which is needed for sebum production that keeps hair moisturized. Vitamin A plays an important role in the growth of all bodily tissues, including skin and hair.

Serves: 4 people
Ingredients

• 4 shallots
• 1 cube of vegetable stock
• 1 butternut squash
• 125ml soy cream
• 4 carrots
• water (start with 500ml)
• sea salt & pepper
• olive oil

Preparation

Start by slicing up the butternut squash, with the skin still on. I sliced them into discs first and then chopped each disk in 3-4 pieces. Try to make it so that most pieces are around the same size, that way they’ll all be cooked the same way too. Add a splash of olive oil to an oven dish and add your butternut squash along with a few grinds of pepper and a pinch of sea salt. Grill in the oven at 200°C for 20 minutes.

Take the squash out of the oven, flip the pieces over and pop back in the oven for another 5 minutes, at 220°C this time.

Let the squash cool down a little bit while preparing the other ingredients.

Slice the carrots up in small chunks, don’t make them too thick or your blender might have issues blending them. Roughly chop the onions and heat up olive oil in a deep pot. Add the onion first and simmer at medium heat for 3 minutes before adding carrots and stock cube. Now peel of the skin of the squash with a knife, it should be very easy now compared to doing it before grilling. Add the chunks to the deep pot along with the water and season to taste with pepper and salt. Continue to cook for 20 minutes, add more water along the way if needed, but don’t go overboard or you might end up with a soup that’s just too thin and won’t taste like much. I used around 850ml in total for my soup.

After 20 minutes add the soy cream and get your hand blender out. Blend the soup, you can add more water at this stage too if you find it too thick, but do so at 100ml at the time, to avoid adding too much water.

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