Indian Winter Mouth Drenching Recipes: Sweet potato & butternut squash soup with lemon & garlic toast

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home,”

so went the quote by renowned British Poet and Author, Edith Sitwell.

In India, the winters are marked by cool wind, snow all around, eating hot food or a cup of hot Chai. Usually, in winters people used to eat heavy foods like pakodas, parathas. These type of food helps in keeping us warm but trying something light and delicious and not a bad idea.

So here are Mouth Watering light dish:

Sweet potato & butternut squash soup with lemon & garlic toast

Servings: 8-10

Preparation Time: 30 Minutes

Cooking Time: 1 hour

Delicious roasted vegetables in honey before blitzing into velvety smooth, spiced soup served with garlic and zest ciabatta slices for dippling.

Ingredients

For the Soup:

· 500g sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

· 1 tbsp clear honey

· 1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped

· 1 tbsp olive oil

· 2 chopped onions

· 3 crushed garlic cloves

· 1 tsp cinnamon

· 1 tsp grated nutmeg

· 1 vegetable or chicken stock

· 100ml double cream

For the Toast:

· 3 crushed garlic cloves

· 1tbsp olive oil

· 100g butter

· 1 tbsp chopped thyme

· 2tbsp snipped chives

· 1 zest lemon

· 2 ciabatta loaves, cut into slices

Method:

1. Firstly pre heat the oven to 200C. Place the butternut quusah and sweet potato on a baking tray and add honey and dizzle olive oil.

2. Roast it for 40-15 minutes until it gets soft and start caramelise at the edges.

3. In the meantime, fry the onions in 1 tbsp olive oil until it gets soft. Then add garlic, chicken stock, nutmeg and cinnamon. Bring it to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

4. Now remove the butterbut squash and sweet potato from the oven and add it to the pan with the stock. Blend everything using a stick blender until it gets smooth.

5. Stir in to the most of the cream and bring it back to a gentle simmer and season with pepper and salt to taste.

6. Now, to make the lemon and garlic toast, mildly warm the garlic and olive oil in the pan over a low heat for few minutes. Now remove it from the heat and mix it with the lemon zest and butter until smooth. Then leave it to cool, after that stir in the chives and thyme.

7. Now toast the ciabatta slices with a spoonful of garlic butter.

8. The soup is ready to serve, dizzle with the remaining cream and some black pepper.