Butternut squash soup

Κυπριακά δαμαί

We had a bit of a dodgy lunch yesterday, so for the evening meal we wanted something simple and soothing. We had a butternut squash in the fridge so I looked up some soup recipes. This is what I ended up with:

Ingredients
1 medium size butternut squash, diced
1 large potato, diced
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, very finely chopped
Dill (either fresh or dried-I used dried)
Vegetable stock or good old water
Olive oil
Salt
In a large saucepan firstly sauté the garlic and onions in olive oil. Toss in the squash, potato and dill and turn for about 1 minute until they are coated with oil. Add your vegetable stock (or water) and salt and allow to boil for about 20 minutes, or until squash and potato are soft. Use a hand blender to blitz the ingredients, getting a nicely thick soup. Serve. If you have fresh coriander, chop some and sprinkle it over your plate. We had this with rye sour dough bread, worked a treat.

Chickpea & butternut squash soup

Chickpea & butternut squash soup

Ingredients

1 butternut squash, diced

250 gr dried chickpeas (soaked in water overnight)

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 can of chopped tomatoes (or some nice fresh, ripe ones if you have them)

Coriander seeds, finely crushed

Cumin seeds, finely crushed

Olive oil

Chilli flakes

Salt & pepper

Fresh parsley, chopped

In a pressure cooker, add the chickpeas and cook for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes check them, if they're not cooked to your satisfaction, cook for about 10 minutes longer. In the meantime...

Boil the diced squash and let it rest to one side. In a frying pan shallow fry the garlic, onion and the crushed coriander and cumin seeds. Add the chilli flakes.

Open the pressure cooker, bring to the boil again without the lid and add the (drained) squash, along with the tomatoes and the onion/seeds mix. Let it cook together for about 15 minutes. Serve with a handful of fresh parsley.

P.S. In the original recipe it said to put everything in the blender. I like my soups with some texture so I ignored that.

Fish Chowder

This my take on what is a lovely, wholesome dish. I tried a lovely version in Saratoga Springs in 2007, but wanted to make a version without the bacon rind. I hate mixing seafood and meat.

Ingredients (serves 4)

For the stock

Heads of 4 sea bass

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 cloves of garlic

(if you have more fish off-cuts and heads, use them)

For the soup

400gr of white fish, I used coley, cut in large chunks

1 onion, cut in strips

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

parsley, chopped (separate the harder stalks from the leaves)

some sweetcorn

prawns (shelled)

mushrooms (quartered if small)

[shelled mussells if you have them-I didn't]

3-4 medium-sized potatoes, cut in cubes

In a saucepan, boil the ingredients for the stock for about 30 minutes. In the meantime, heat some olive oil and butter in a different saucepan, shallow fry the garlic and onions for a few minutes. Add the potatoes and parsley stalks and stir for a few more minutes.

Remove the fish heads from the stock and pure it in with the potatoes, adding hot water if necessary. Add salt and pepper. Boil for about 15 minutes or so. When the potatoes are cooked, take some out, mash them and leave them aside. Add the mushrooms, prawns and sweet corn and cook for another 10 minutes. Add the chunks of coley and simmer very gently for about 10 minutes (or until you're happy with it). Return the mashed potato in the mix, stir gently, turn off and allow to stand for about 10 minutes. Serve with a sprinkle of the fresh parsley and crusty bread.

(note: I chose not to use milk or cream as I find it culturally challenging to mix dairy and fish. Soups don't always have to be cloudy.)