Comfort food: Butternut and harissa soup
This is soup is really easy to make, but the flavour is deep and comforting. The butternut squash is roasted in the oven, which creates much of the flavour. The harissa paste does the rest. This is another crowdpleaser.
It goes well with this soda bread if you are looking for some comfort food that is going to support your autoimmune condition.
If you want to add a little more protein to help balance your blood sugar levels and make the soup more sustaining, you could add some cannellini beans at the same time as you add the squash to the stock. These will blitz up and be undetectable, other than thickening the soup a little.
The recipe is part of the Comfort Food Series.
Butternut squash and harissa soup
Feeds 4, takes 35 mins
Ingredients
Olive oil
1 butternut squash, cubed
1 onion, cut into wedges
1 litre veg stock
1 tbsp harissa paste
1/4 tsp saffron threads
Method
Heat the oven to 180 degrees
Add the squash and onion to a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil. Roast for 25 minutes until soft and caramelised.
Put the stock in a large bowl with the harissa and saffron. Bring to the boil on a high heat. Carefully tip in the roasted squash and onion. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove from the heat and blitz when safe to do so.
Reheat, season and serve.