Tuesday 30 September 2008

Butternut Squash and Sausage Soup and Rustic Bacon and Cheddar Bread

I love soups and my family and I welcome a steaming bowl of home-made soup on a cold autumn’s day or evening served with your favourite crusty bread. This Butternut Squash and Sausage Soup is easy, quick and delicious. The sausages add a yummy touch and something I would never have thought to add to a bowl of soup but it works! I made some Rustic Bacon and Cheddar Bread to serve with the soup. This savoury bread is seriously easy and loaded with cheese and bacon. A delicious bread that is full of flavour and perfect to serve with soup or eaten on its own.


Butternut Squash and Sausage Soup

Serves 8-10

Ingredients
7 juniper berries
1 ½ tsp caraway seeds
1 butternut squash, peeled, seeded and chopped
2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 small parsnips, peeled and chopped
2 small carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
6 pure pork sausages
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 190oC/375oF/gas mark 5.

Crush the juniper berries and caraway seeds with a pestle and mortar. Put all the vegetables, the oil, spices and seasoning in a large roasting pan and mix with your hands until the vegetables are well coated with the oil and spices. Pop into the oven for 45 minutes or until the vegetables are golden and soft, turning over once halfway through cooking, to ensure they are evenly roasted. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Meanwhile, fry the sausages in a large pan.

Puree the vegetables with enough water to give a lovely soupy consistency and season to taste. Remove the sausages from the pan and slice them. Pour the soup into the pan, add the sausages, stir through, then reheat.

Recipe from Soups & Stews by Sophie Conran



Rustic Bacon and Cheddar Bread

Makes 1 Loaf

Ingredients
320g (11½ oz) plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
100g (3½ oz)Cheddar cheese, grated
100g (3½ oz) bacon lardons, cooked until just crisp in a little sunflower oil and cooled
200ml (7fl oz) milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
60ml (2fl oz) olive oil

13 x 23cm (5x9in) loaf tin

Preheat the oven to 180OC (350oF), Gas mark 4. Lightly oil and line the loaf tin with parchment paper.

Sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add the grated cheese and the cooled bacon lardons and mix well. Pour the milk into a large measuring jug, add the eggs, mustard and olive oil and whisk to combine.

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and slowly pour in the liquid, stirring all the time until it is fully incorporated, to form a fairly liquid dough. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes. Remove from the tin and allow to cook for a further 10 minutes on the oven shelf to crisp up the bottom. When cooked, it will sound hollow when tapped on the base. Allow to cool on a wire rack before eating.

Recipe from Bake by Rachel Allen

14 comments:

Finla said...

Here we love soup too. Especially hubby, so we have a small cup soup every afternoon before lunch.
Love this soup and the colour.

Maggie said...

The soup and bread look really comforting. We will soon be needing more of the same.

Bea Roque said...

Las cremas de calabazas son mis favoritas.....y ahora que empieza la temporada... me estoy frotando las manos, con todas las recetas ricas que se pueden hacer. Me he quedado impresionada con tu pan rústico....y la mezcla de sabores bacon y cheddar, me chifla, te lo copio!!! Con tu permiso :-))) Un beso. B

Nickki said...

What a gorgeous meal for a cold day! Looks delicious :)

Coby said...

Maria, this soup sounds great, but then I read the ingredients and my tastebuds were dancing at the thought! A simple name but complex flavours - wow, it's like no other soup recipe I've seen:) Also your bread looks incredible - I notice it's shiny, yet you mentioned no egg-wash or similar, Maria, I am seriously salivating here!

Reeni said...

Those look so tasty! The perfect combination. The bread looks out of this world fantastic!! I agree with the above comment, my mouth is watering too!

Anonymous said...

I love sausage, and I love butternut squash...why have I never thought to combine the two? You are truly a goddess for having posted this!
Now I really wish that my squash had grown this year (terrible year in the garden). But at least it is in season now!

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

What I would do for some of that soup and bread!

Rosie said...

Such a perfect combo for this time of year and it all looks SO delish :)

Rosie x

Ivy said...

What a great soup. Now that it's becoming a bit cold in Greece we shall start cooking some soups and this one sounds great, so does the bread.

Beth (jamandcream) said...

I still haven't had the book through yet!! I am making this soup at the weekend - its bound to be a winner

Anonymous said...

Just found your fab blog which i'm droolling over. Would like to make the bacon and cheese loaf but the recipe doesn't say how much cheese. Can you please help me out. Resisting making any of the gorgeous cakes as I will only eat them and my waistline doesn't need them.

Maria♥ said...

Hi Stephanie

Thanks for the lovely compliment.

I have now added the missing ingredient, sorry about that. This loaf is really delish and we love it, hope you do too.

Let me know how it turns out.

Maria
x

BingoEddie said...

yum for my tum!