Spicy Sunshine Soup

This is a real warmer for those first chilly days of autumn when you have a glut of produce in the kitchen and are running out of ideas as to what to do with it all.

Serves 8 easily.

Half a butternut squash, peeled and diced
2 medium onions diced
3 yellow or red peppers, de-seed and diced
6 tomatoes halved. I used yellow ones which looked great.
1 green chili de-seeded and sliced
1 tablespoon ground coriander
half tablespoon ground paprika. On this occasion I would NOT used smoked.
2 cloves garlic chopped
5ml olive oil
1pint (20oz) vegetable stock
1 teaspoon sugar
black pepper to taste


Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the onions, fry gently until translucent; add the garlic and stir in the oil. Add the rest of the veg and the spices and sweat gently for a couple of minutes.

Pour on the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Simmer gently for about half an hour until all the veg is well cooked. Add the teaspoon of sugar and back pepper to taste. Whizz in a blender until smooth.

I always leave the skin on peppers and tomatoes. Once it has been whizzed, the soup is quite smooth. However if you want to you can remove the skins either before you cook the soup or when it has come to the boil. You can stand over it and as the veg softens, the skins rise to the top and and are easy to remove from the pan with a slotted spoon.

Serve with crusty bread and cheese or for a special lunch, cheese muffins.