Spicy peanut & butternut squash soup

Ingredients 1 butternut squash, 1 tablespoon peanut butter (I like Whole Earth Foods), 1/2 pint vegetable stock, chilli flakes

Serves: 2 preparation: 35 minutes

I love soup. I find all the chopping, stirring and pureeing very soothing, the warm smells that fill the house comforting, and I love ladling out steamy bowls of soup for people to dunk hot crispy bread into, dressing it with ever more creative croutons or swirls of cream and yoghurt. This soup is velvet smooth, voluptuously thick and has a fabulous kick of chilli and savoury peanut butter to match the clean sweetness of the butternut squash.

1) Peel and the butternut squash, discard the seeds and cut into chunks. Roast in the oven in a covered dish at 200 degrees for 25 minutes.

2) Strain the butternut squash (do not discard the juice) and pulse thoroughly in a blender. Add the pureed butternut squash and juice into the vegetable stock along with the peanut butter and summer for 5 minutes.

3) Season with salt, black pepper and chilli flakes before serving.

Butternut squash & rosemary chips

Ingredients 1 butternut squash, rosemary, salt, pepper, olive oil

Serves: 2 Preparation: 2 minutes (fried) 15 minutes (baked)


I love butternut squash - from risottos, to salads to soup it's so versatile. It makes a great alternative to chips. The texture is of course different - squash is a moister vegetable than a potato but they're still delicious!


1) Chop the top from the butternut squash and slice off the skin. Cut in half, remove the seeds and slice into french fries.


2) You can fry these for 2 minutes and then toss with salt, pepper and chopped rosemary, or drizzle the squash with olive oil, toss with salt, pepper and chopped rosemary and then bake for 15 minutes.

Roast butternut squash & pancetta soup

Ingredients      1/2 pint ham stock, 100g pancetta, 1 large butternut squash, 1 small potato, truffle oil.

Serves: 4 Preparation: 1 hour


I love soup. I find all the chopping, stirring and pureeing very soothing, the warm smells that fill the house comforting, and I love ladling out steamy bowls of soup for people to dunk hot crispy bread into, dressing it with ever more creative croutons or swirls of cream and yoghurt. This winter I have created 10 new soups to warm you through on a cold day. This soup is velvet smooth, voluptuously thick and has a rich, savoury flavour.


1) Peel and the butternut squash, discard the seeds and cut into chunks. Drizzle with a little truffle oil and roast in the oven in a covered dish at 200 degrees for 20 minutes.


2) Strain the butternut squash (do not discard the juice) and pulse thoroughly in a blender. Add the pureed butternut squash and juice into the ham stock along with the pancetta and the peeled, diced potato then allow to simmer for a further 30 minutes.


3) Mash the potato into the soup with a potato masher and stir through. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then serve.

Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients 1 large pumpkin, 2 small butternut squashes, 1 onion, 3 cloves garlic, 1 pint vegetable stock, 1 tablespoon cumin, 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 300ml double cream, butter, sage.

Serves: 8 Preparation: 2 hours


1) Peel the butternut squash and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Cut into cubes and set aside.

2) Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds and pith with a spoon. Make sure all the stringiness has been removed. Peel away the skin with a chef's knife and cut the flesh into cubes and set aside.
3) Roast both in the oven in an ovenproof dish with a lid for 50 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, remove the roast vegetables and blend until smooth. The excess juice in in the ovenproof dish should make about a pint of liquid - do not discard it.
4) Peel and finely dice an onion and 3 cloves of garlic. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a stock pot and sizzle the onions until soft. Add the garlic and chopped sage leaves and then stir through the pureed pumpkin, pumpkin/squash juice and pint of vegetable stock.
5) Add the vegetable stock, cumin and pepper and stir through.
6) After 20 minutes, carefully strain the liquid from the mashed vegetables and pass them through a sieve. Be patient as this will take a while but the result - velvety smooth soup - is worth it.
7) Return to the hob along with the cream and leave to simmer for half an hour to one hour before serving.

Butternut squash rice salad

Ingredients     Butternut squash, long grain rice,     wild rice, pumpkin seeds, sage, lemon, butter.

1) Peel the butternut squash and scoop out the seeds. Dice the flesh and roast in the oven for 30 minutes.


2) Mix the rice together and boil for 20 minutes.


3) Squeeze lemon juice into a little melted butter and finely diced sage leaves. Strain the rice and stir through the dressing and butternut squash. Spinkle with pumpkin seeds and serve hot or cold.

Butternut squash arancini

Ingredients Leftover Butternut squash risotto, sausage meat, old bread, egg.

Risotto is rubbish when reheated - it tends to congeal and lose the lovely soupy-ness so I like to put that to good use and once it's cool, roll it into risotto balls or arancini di riso if you speak Italian.


1) Pulse old bread in your blender to form breadcrumbs. In this case I used some mediterrean rustiques - garlic, tomato and herb bread.


2) Roll out the sausage meat and form it around the risotto ball. Dip in whisked egg and roll about in the breadcrumbs.


3) Deep fry until golden and crispy - or sizzle for 1 minute and bake in the oven for 4 minutes if like me you're not a fan of fried food.

Roast beef & beef dripping vegetables

Ingredients Beef joint, sweet potato, butternut squash, olive oil.

1) Halve and de-seed the butternut squash, remove the seeds and dice the flesh into large chunks.


2) Peel and dice the sweet potato into equally sized chunks and arrange in a roasting tin around the joint of beef.


3) Roast in the oven for an hour (unless you have a particularly enormous joint - this was 850 grammes), basting the meat and stirring the veg in order to coat the vegetables in the meat juices every 15 minutes.


4) Slice the beef and serve - ideal with horseradish or dijon mustard.

Butternut squash & beetroot kebabs

Ingredients    Butternut squash, halloumi, beetroot,   1lb plums, 50g sugar, 3 cloves garlic, 4 scotch bonnet chillis, ginger root, lime juice

Following on from my soba noodles with plum sauce recipe - if you have any leftover plum sauce it makes a fabulously sticky kebab marinade!


1) Slice the butternut squash in half, remove the seeds and slice out the flesh. Cut into chunks and roast in the oven for 10 minutes, drizzled with plum sauce.


2) Once the squash has part cooked, slide onto kebab skewers along with chunks of beetroot and halloumi. Drizzle with a generous proportion of the plum sauce and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Butternut squash risotto

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Ingredients Risotto rice (arborio, carnaroli or vialone nano - I would recommend carnaroli), vegetable stock, white onion, garlic, sage, rosemary, butter, butternut squash, brandy.

All risottos (no matter what the ingredients) can be made in 3 simple stages. The first is called tostatura - coating the rice in fat, the second involves cooking off some alcohol (white wine, brandy or vermouth produce the best flavours) and the third involves releasing the starch from the rice one ladle of stock at a time.

1) Peel the butternut squash, slice it in half and remove the seeds before cutting it into chunks. Melt a little butter and chopped sage leaves and stir the butternut squash into it. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes.

2) Separate 5 cloves of garlic from the bulb and roast in the oven for 30 minutes (within the skin) Squeeze the garlic from the skin and stir into a pint of vegetable stock.

3) Melt a knob of butter in a pan and add some chopped sage and rosemary leaves and half a finely diced white onion. Soften the onions for about a minute and then stir in the risotto rice. Stir until the rice becomes transparent, revealing a white dot in the centre and pour in a glass of brandy.

4) Once the alcohol has cooked off, stir through the stock one ladleful at a time, adding the roasted butternut squash with the second ladle of stock.

5) Serve once the rice has softened and the starch has created a creamy sauce.

Carrot and kiwi soup

Ingredients 6 carrots, 1 butternut squash, 1 sweet potato, 1 parsnip, 2 garlic cloves, 1 pint vegetable stock, sage, 6 kiwi fruit, basil oil, brandy, brown sugar Optional - to garnish grated cheddar

1) Crush 2 cloves of garlic and sautee in basil oil for 1 minute before adding a shot of brandy and a teaspoon of brown muscovado sugar to caramelise the garlic

2) Peel and cube the carrots, parsnip, squash and sweet potato and add into the pan along with a pint of vegetable stock and the chopped sage

3) Simmer for 20 minutes before separating the vegetables from the liquid and pureeing. Pass the puree through a sieve for a smooth liquid and add back into the pan of liquid along with the sliced kiwi

4) After 10 minutes puree a final time and serve with grated cheddar for contrast