Chef's Corner
Roast Butternut and Sweet Potato Soup
Serves 4
Prep Time
15 min
Cooking TIme
45 min - 1 hour
Ingredients
- 1 medium butternut peeled, deseeded, and cut into medium sized chunks
- 1 large orange sweet potato peeled and cut into similar sizes to the butternut
- 1 – 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 large leeks (or 1 leek and two celery stalks)
- 1 large onion chopped
- 50g Kerrygold Pure Irish Salted Butter
- A few sprigs parsley
- 2 – 3 bay leaves
- 1 large piece of ginger grated about 6 cm
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- Small pinch chilli flakes, optional
- 1 tsp masala/curry powder of your choice
- ½ tsp cumin
- Salt &pepper
- Approx 1 litre – 1.25 litres vegetable stock
- Juice of 1 orange or 2 clementines
- 100 – 200ml cream or crème fraiche to finish
- Toasted pumpkin seeds to serve (optional)
- Half a loaf ciabatta, cut or torn into small cubes
- 80g melted Kerrygold Pure Irish Salted Butter
- 80g Kerrygold Vintage Cheddar finely grated
Directions
Roasting the butternut and sweet potato for this soup gives it a lovely depth of flavour, but you can skip this step if you prefer. The soup will still be delicious.
Soup
- Toss the butternut, sweet potatoes, and carrots lightly in olive oil, spread out onto a baking tray and season with salt & pepper. Roast in an oven that has been preheated to 180C/350F for 35 – 40 minutes until they just start taking on some colour and are just cooked through. Alternatively, skip this step.
- In a large heavy-based pot add the olive oil and butter and sweat the onions/leeks/celery until soft. Put the lid on to generate some steam which helps the sweating.
- Once soft, add the bay leaves, parsley, garlic and spices and cook for a minute or two until fragrant and just starting to stick to the bottom of the pot.
- If you are adding the roasted or uncooked vegetables do so now and immediately add the stock and orange juice. Cover and allow to simmer over a gentle heat for about 45 minutes. If the vegetables are uncooked, cook for about an hour.
- Take this off the heat, allow to cool slightly, or if you have a metal stick blender you can process this soup while it is still hot.
- Remove the bay leaves and then process the soup with a handheld stick blender or in a liquidiser/food processor until smooth.
- Serve with fresh cream cream and toasted pumpkin seeds.
Croutons
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F.
- Add the cut or torn pieces of bread to an oven try and drizzle over the melted butter. Using your hands toss the bread until evenly coated. Roast in the oven until the bread is just starting to go brown. About 10 minutes.
- Sprinkle the finely grated cheddar over the croutons and put the tray back in the oven to toast until golden brown. You can shake the pan during this final baking.
- Remove, allow to cool and set aside to serve with the soup.
