I don’t know what it is but I swear the weather gets a touch cold and my body starts CRAVING butternut squash. It’s like my body is a human butternut squash thermometer. I don’t even know what that means…but it sounds practical.

This soup contains no dairy or even coconut milk but takes on the creamiest texture from the pureed cauliflower. Creamy-sweet butternut squash soup? Sign me up.

Also, there’s a hefty dose of turmeric in here for those anti-inflammatory benefits that fight against ageing, help your digestion and help your body prevent and treat inflammatory conditions like arthritis.

I feel like I had way more to say about this soup but now that I’m typing I’m totally blanking…

OH YEAH! This is a dish that just keeps on giving – if you have extra left over, add some nutritional yeast and boom you’ve got yourself some vegan cheese sauce. Pour over chickpea-lentil pasta for a REAL TREAT

INGREDIENTS

• 1 medium to large butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded & cubed.
• 1 head cauliflower, broken into florets
• 1 shallot
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil + 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp cayenne
• 1 litre unsalted vegetable broth (or chicken broth)
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• Pink himalayan sea salt
• cracked black pepper

METHOD

• Begin by prepping the butternut squash (I’m sorry in advance – this part is annoying). Next, break the cauliflower into florets and chop up the shallot and roughly chop the garlic.
• In a large soup pot, heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add the shallot and cook for a few minutes. Add the turmeric, cayenne, and paprika and cook together with the shallot for 1 minute. Add the garlic, cauliflower, butternut squash and vegetable broth.
• Bring the vegetable broth to a simmer. Cover and let everything cook for 15-20 minutes or until vegetables are fork-tender. Transfer soup to a high speed blender and blitz until smooth and creamy. You can do this in batches if needed.
• Transfer pureed soup back to pot over low heat. Stir in the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil, the dried oregano and season with pink himalayan salt and black pepper to taste. I used roughly 1 teaspoon of salt.
• Once the seasoning is to your liking, remove from heat, serve & enjoy!