Roasted Butternut & Apple Soup

The big surprise with this delicious soup is it is actually a detox soup piled with loads of healthy ingredients and can be enjoyed hot or cold.

Who doesn't love a hearty butternut or pumpkin soup when the rain sets it and temps start dropping. The secret in this recipe - besides the apples - is the butternut that is roasted in the oven.  This allows for it to caramelise which really brings out that lovely sweet flavour.

When choosing your apples, stay away from Grammy Smith as they are really tart and although we want a little acidity to cut through the sweetness of the butternut, they can be too strong.  I like to use Gala or even Honeycrisp apples which offer a milder flavour.

The chilli here is optional, but to be honest with you, it does do wonders and again, cuts through that overall sweetness of the soup... and is beneficial for detox.

Enjoy with a little country farm-style bread
~  Michelle ~

Roasted Butternut & Apple Soup

1.4kg butternut squash
1 large onion, quartered
1/4 cup olive oil
4 large sweet apples (Gala/Honeycrisp) inch cubed, skin on
225g shiitake mushrooms, halved
1 cup celery, chopped
8 cups chicken stock
2 cups apple juice
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp chilli (optional)

Preheat oven to 220'c.  In a large bowl mix butternut, onion and 1/2 of the oil.  Toss well and bake on a baking tray for approx 40 min until squash is tender.  Meanwhile mix apples, mushrooms and remaining oil on a second tray and bake for 15 min until apples are tender.

In a large pot add celery, roasted veg from the two baking trays, chicken stock, apple juice, salt, pepper, nutmeg, cinnamon, red pepper flakes and simmer for 30 min.  Allow to cool.  In batches blend until smooth in a foo processor.

Finally, simmer for a further 5 min and adjust the consistency if needs be with a little more apple juice.

Butternut, Chicken & Tarragon Tart

A tart, quiche call it what you like, is seriously the easiest thing to whip up midweek for dinner. The additional bonus is ... you get to use fridge leftovers!

Seriously, yes I am sorry to bring you ANOTHER quiche recipe, although I have labelled this one a tart - which is a red herring, hoping you wouldn't notice.  Officially classified as a quiche, the 3 : 1 formula applies - that is 3 eggs to 1 cup dairy or in this case a little more dairy to make it luxe.

I always use a store-bought roasted chicken, as I don't see the point in doing it yourself midweek when the stores do a fantastic rotisserie effort for you.  You can use any leftover veg in your fridge, just think about the flavours.  Some veg are more bland than others and need a little pop of something - in this case Piri Piri as we call it in South Africa - AKA HOT CHILLI POWDER to everyone else.  

Butternut, Chicken & Tarragon Tart

Serves 4 - 6

Crust:

• 1 cup cake flour
• 1 cup Parmesan, grated
• 1/2 cup butter melted
• 1/2 tsp mustard powder
• 1/2 tsp pepper

Filling:

• 100 butternut, small dice
• 200g goat's cheese feta
• 200g chicken, store-bought cooked and diced
• 3 eggs
• 200g cream cheese
• 1 tsp English mustard powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup cream
• 1 tsp dried French Tarragon
• Pinch Piri piri / Chilli powder

Heat oven to 160'C.

Add crust ingredients into a food processor and whizz for 30 seconds until pea-like crumbs are formed.  Grease a pie dish before adding the crumble.  Using the back of a spoon, press crumble in the base and up the sides firmly.  Bake as is for 10 minutes and allow to cool before adding any filling.

Microwave diced butternut for 2 minutes to get cooking process started.  Crumble feta onto cooled base, adding chicken thereafter and finally butternut.

To make custard simply mix eggs, cream cheese, mustard, milk, cream, tarragon and piri piri.  Pour over the filling in the base and bake 42 min until golden brown.  Allow to cool to room temp before serving.

Butternut, Bacon & Feta Bake

Just had a special friend from New York pop in for an overnight stay.  It was awesome to catch up but being a work day there was no time to cook a big dinner.  Store bought roast chicken, rosemary potato wedges and this great winter side dish was perfect to serve.  Quick, easy and gave us loads of time to enjoy a few bottles of red wine in front of the fire - with @Angus Pitkethley.  Here we go ...    

1 tbsp olive oil
250g bacon bits
800g butternut, medium dice
1tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp fresh thyme
200g goat feta cheese
250 ml lite cream

Heat oven to 190'c
Add oil in a pan and fry bacon until a crispy
Add butternut and the spices to a bowl and mix
Add bacon and all the juices from the browning
Crumble 100g cheese into mix and stir through
Transfer to an oven proof dish
Rough crumble rest of the feta on top
Pour cream evenly over
Bake for 60 min until butternut is tender
Stir allowing liquid to be absorbed and serve

Enjoy as a winter side dish with almost anything.
It is even better cold the day after.

Miss you already AP, see you in a few weeks time!