Butternut squash soup with crispy seeds
Growing up I was a very fussy eater. I never forget being told by one of my aunts that all the food I wasted throughout my life would be waiting for me to eat it when I die.
Grim, right? And a little mean.
But recently I have been thinking a lot about food waste.
Food is a powerful thing and at the moment it’s being used by rebels in Syria to keep civilians under control. It hurts to hear that children are eating grass in order to not feel hungry. I know people differ greatly in their views on war but I felt so frustrated that I am not able to fly over there and help.
But there are other ways to bring awareness to this issue. In Europe we wasted 89 million tons of food in 2013 and the UK is the worst offender.
You are now thinking that it’s the big supermarkets fault, right? Wrong. Household waste is the biggest contributor to these numbers.
It’s hard to hear that when so many are starving we’re taking food for granted. So it starts at home, maybe many of us can’t physically go there and help them but we can be more considerate and appreciate every bit of food we are able to have.
This soup was a great way to start, it uses all edible parts of the ingredients. I used leftover chicken but you can substitute it for chicken tights on the bone.
Ingredients
1 butternut squash
Small potato, peeled and chopped
20g peeled ginger
1 tsp harissa paste
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp cumin
1/3 leftover roast chicken, on the bone
3 Bay leaves
1 medium onion, chopped
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Crumbled feta cheese, to garnish
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170C (fan). Peel and de-seed the butternut squash, don’t discard the seeds. Cut the squash into pieces, drizzle with olive oil and roast it in the oven for 30 minutes.
2. Make the stock by frying the onion and celery with a little olive oil. Once the onions have softened add 800ml of boiling water and season with salt and pepper. Cover the pan and let it simmer on a very low heat for 30 minutes.
3. Remove the bay leaves and chicken from the stock. Add the potato, butternut squash, ginger, harissa, nutmeg and cumin. Let it simmer for 30 minutes.
4. Remove it from the heat. Pick the meat from the bones and return it to the pan. Blend until you get a smooth soup.
5. Wash the squash seeds and pat them dry. Place them on a roasting tin, drizzle them with olive oil and season with rock salt. Roast at 160C (fan) for 20-30 minutes, stirring at times, until they become darker in colour.
6. Serve the soup with a little crumbled feta and the roasted seeds.
If you would like to go a step further and support charities and business in the UK raising awareness about food waste, check out Food Cycle, Too Good To Waste and Rubies In The Rubble. They’re nothing short of inspirational.
