Mags Roche was in the kitchen today to make her roasted butternut squash soup with thyme cream and Irish soda bread.
Ingredients
Soup
- 1 leek
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 2 garlic cloves
- 200g butter
- Thyme sprigs
- 750ml chicken stock
- 100g cream
Brown soda bread
- 815g brown flour
- 275g plain flour
- 20g bread soda25g
- Brown sugar
- 15g salt
- 75g butter
- 2 eggs
- 800ml buttermilk
Method
Soup
- Cut the squash in half and roast in the oven at 200° with garlic and thyme.
- Roast for approx 40mins, until the squash is very soft and beautifully golden.
- Heat a pan and sweat off the carrot onion and leek. Add your squash, and cook for a further 5mins, taking care it doesn't stick.
- Season lightly with salt. Add 2/3 chicken stock and put on a light simmer for 25mins.
- Blend with a hand blender.
- Check consistency and seasoning. If it's too thick add more chicken stock.
- Serve boiling hot with a spoon of cream and fresh thyme leaves.
Brown soda bread
- Sieve plain flour with bread soda. Add brown flour sugar and salt.
- Melt the butter. Whisk the eggs slightly, and add buttermilk.
- Mix this wet mixture into the dry ingredients.
- Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 40mins.
- Take out of the tin and bake for another 10mins.
- Every oven is different so it might vary. The base of the bread should sound hollow when you tap it.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack.
