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I love having lots of candles around our home and I was lighting one with my Cook’s Matches and I stumbled across this delightful soup recipe on the back of them. It’s a Tom Kerridge recipe and I was immediately inspired to make it as it seemed so Autumnal and fitting for this time of year. Recipe is from Tom Kerridge’s book Best Ever Dishes and it’s absolutely delicious.

Ingredients

100g butter

1 onion – diced

2 garlic cloves – ( I minced them)

1kg butternut squash, peeled and chopped into chunks approx 2cm ( recipe advises 500g of flesh)

800 ml vegetable stock

175g parmesan cheese – grated

2 tablespoons truffle oil

Recipe suggests 200g fresh cep mushrooms but I left these out as not everyone in our house is a fan of them.

200g vacuum packed chestnuts

10 sage leaves chopped and a couple for garnish ( I used a handful)

Salt and cracked black pepper

Method

Melt 50g butter in a large saucepan over a medium low heat. Add your diced onion and sweat for approx 10 minutes until soft, stirring all the time.

Now add the minced garlic for a minute or two more and stir in your butternut squash chunks. Cover the ingredients with your vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Continue to simmer gently for approximately 30 minutes or so ensuring the butternut squash is nice and soft.

Remove from heat and stir in your parmesan, truffle oil and season to your liking. Blend in a blender or with a hand blender and pass through a sieve to ensure a nice smooth consistency. It will be a glorious warm orange colour.

In a frying pan melt your remaining half of the butter and pan fry the ceps if you are adding them but if not just your chestnuts for 2 minutes or so. Stir in the majority of your sage and keep the rest aside for a garnish.

Once you’ve poured your soup into bowls you can finally spoon over some ceps if you like them and your chestnuts, then finally sprinkle on your remaining sage to garnish.