Squash and parmesan soup

I managed a half pound loss this week which was a nice surprise.  Two pounds left to go!  Pressure...

This weekend was spent at a wedding.  Always a lovely way to while away some time and extremely strange as we were both away from D for the night.  He had lots of fun with Grandad and I'm grateful for that.  Here are some of my favourite pictures of the weekend (including a few foodie photos in order to continue the blog's theme!)

Sha had the most gorgeous dress and the day couldn't have been more personal, more fun or more emotional.  I wish the happy couple a future that builds on the thirteen years they've already had together in lots of lovely ways.

This week's soup is another one of my favourites that really doesn't feel like diet food.  It's so filling and creamy, mostly because of the addition of that magical vegetable - butternut squash.  I made use of a trick Jamie Oliver shared in his recent series - roasting the squash whole. which took forever to have happen but was the easiest way of cooking ever.  One of the squash that I used was picked up from Reg the Veg in Clifton but they weren't sure exactly what variety it was.

Stats: - 6 servings, 2pp per serving


20g butter
two finely sliced shallots
2 squash (one butternut, one unknown!)
900ml hot veg stock
60g grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to gas mark 7.  Put the squash in a roasting dish for an hour and a half.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for ten minutes.  Cut in half, scoop out and discard the seeds.  Scoop out the flesh and keep to one side.  Discard the skin.

The skin practically falls away from the squash...

In a large pan, melt the butter and add the shallot.  Sweat for around seven minutes.  Add the flesh and the stock.  Cook for ten minutes, mixing together.
Blend the soup, adding the parmesan.

Serve and try hard not to eat all six servings at once.

There will not be any Sunday soup next weekend, or at least not one of my making as we're on holiday.  We get back just before Sunday but I suspect we'll be too busy to actually get anything done so I've decided to relieve the pressure a little.