Bill's Butternut Squash Soup for kids

Bill Granger's hearty soup is packed full of vitamins and flavours, perfect for wintery day

Pumpkin's and Squash's are packed full of vitamins and minerals and they are perfectly sweet tasting for your little ones too.

Method

Bill's tip: 'This soup is a hearty, textured bowlful, mashed together rather than blended, so the flavours melt into each other. The smooth, baby food-like texture of traditional butternut squash soup can sometimes be too gluey but if you cover the dish when you roast 
the vegetables, they steam and collapse, rather than caramelising, which makes them more soup-friendly'.

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC/gas mark 4.
2. Put the squash, tomatoes, garlic and carrot in a large flameproof casserole dish, drizzle the veggies with olive oil and sprinkle with the spices and season.
3. Cover the dish and bake for 1½ hours (or until the vegetables are soft) and roughly mash the vegetables with a fork 
or potato masher and stir in the stock. 

4. Put the casserole dish on the stovetop over medium heat and bring the soup to the boil.
5. Add the lentils, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 15–20 minutes until the lentils are tender.
6. Add a little extra stock or water if the soup becomes too thick. Season 
and ladle into bowls.
7. Top with a dollop of yoghurt and a sprinkle of sumac and serve with crusty bread.

Serves 4-6

• 1.5kg butternut squash, peeled and cut into 3cm cubes
• 750g tomatoes, quartered
• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 small carrot, chopped
• 60ml olive oil
• 1teaspoon ground cumin
• 1teaspoon coriander
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1.25 litres of vegetable stock or chicken stock
• 1 tin of red lentils, drained to serve
• plain yoghurt
• sumac

To serve

• crusty bread

BILL’S BASICS by BILL GRANGER, published by Quadrille (£25, hardback) Photos © MIKKEL VANG

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