If you’re living in the Northern Hemisphere right now, like I am, you may well be in need of a little warming up. Not too many people I know dislike Autumn, or fall, as it’s appropriately called here (anyone wanting to know Why it’s called Fall in North America, and not Autumn, need only take a long walk in a park or the countryside to find out); the colours, the hearty food, the smell of damp leaves and wood fire. It’s all good, as they say. Well, I’m heading to Vancouver for a few days and it’s forecast to be rain rain rain the whole way. A little fortification is called for, so a butternut and ham soup for lunch is the best answer I can think of. Soups are delightfully simple to make (on the most part), invigorating in the chill, and healthy too, when prepared with good ingredients. This soup is lightly spiced with paprika and cumin, and the butternut and diced ham were roasted in a hot oven for 45 mins before being boiled into the soup. Does this affect the flavour? You got me there, but I’ll tell you this: my house smelled divine for hours after from the doings of the oven. Curl up on the couch with woolen socks, a cosy blankie and tuck in.
Bon Voyage, a le prochaine semaine!
Mmm, this looks gorgeous. As for the roasting & the taste – I’d definitley say it does make a difference. I make butternut soup quite often, sometimes steaming/boiling the butternut and sometimes roasting it. For me, roasting definitely seems to concentrate (and sweeten??) the flavour. Plus there is less moisture left by the end of roasting so the soup is less watery.
[...] I have been doing this month, there seems (as always, non?) to be a theme. I seem to have gone Butternut Bonkers. And if I’ve posted three things on the blog, you just know we’ve had them [...]