Beyond Orange

  It's still winter out there so just because the sun came out today and allowed a few rays to insinuate a little warmth into our otherwise dreary existence, there's still plenty of freezing your bollocks to go before we can once again don summer gloves and take our motorbikes to the... (Just get to the point. -Ed.).

  One of my favourite winter warmers is a really simple, butternut squash soup. Something I really love about it is you can spice it all sorts of different ways but I'm getting ahead of myself, I haven't told you the recipe yet. Get a big pan with a tight fitting lid and paint the bottom with olive oil. Get an onion or two and chop it roughly. It doesn't matter if the onion pieces are big and irregular cos it's all gonna get blended at the end. Put the onion in the pan with a little sprinkle of salt and get to work on peeling the squash, scooping the seeds out and chopping it into chunks. Put the squash on top of the onions with another sprinkle of salt (and a little curry powder if you want), like I have done below. 

Seriously orange!

  Now is probably a good time to talk about the salt. Firstly, if your diet isn't full of salt and sugar laden processed food then it's healthy to be eating salt. It's a mineral and we need a certain amount of it in our diet. In this soup recipe it also serves a function, salt draws moisture out of the onions and squash as you will see. With everything in the pan, put the heat on high and wait until you can hear sizzling. As soon as you hear it, put the lid on and put pan over the lowest heat you have, preferably with a flame diffuser. Now go and write a book, redecorate your house or alphabetise your record collection. 

  It takes a while for everything to get soft but do check back once in a while, I've known it to take an hour and a half of just sitting there gently sweating, (the soup, not you). If you don't have a flame diffuser you may want to give it a very occasional stir to avoidanything catching or burning. When everything is super soft you're ready to blend it. Though the salt will help draw out lots of liquid, which you will see sloshing around at the bottom, you may want to add a bit of milk to help you get the desired thickness, as well as some seasoning.

  Though this recipe will give you a delicious soup, don't be shy with experimenting with extra ingredients. To give you a clue, some things I've added at the beginning are fresh ginger, curry powder, turmeric, garlic, thyme, sage, I think you get the idea. It really is very easy and a big warming bowl is a great way to keep your mind off how much you miss riding your incredible motorbike for what feels like forever with these endless cold, wet... (Get over yourself, you fucking drama queen. -Ed.)

Kirk out

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