This delicious Moroccan-spiced butternut soup is a great dinner for chilly nights.
Serves 8
You’ll need:
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- Olive oil
- 1 tsp harissa paste
- 1 tsp crushed ginger
- 1 heaped tsp crushed garlic
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 5 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 kg butternut, peeled and chopped
- 1 tin tomatoes, peeled and chopped
- 1 tbs vegetable stock powder
- ½ cup red split lentils, rinsed well
- 1 tin chickpeas, drained
- 1 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)
- 100 ml cream
- Fresh coriander and crumbled feta to serve
Fry the onion in a glug of olive oil (about 2 tbs) until it starts to soften. Add the spicy Moroccan harissa paste (available at supermarkets), ginger, garlic, turmeric, cinnamon and cumin seeds. Fry until the spices become fragrant (about five minutes). Add the carrots, butternut and the tin of tomatoes. Fill the empty tin with water and add, along with stock powder. Turn up the heat to high. Let the soup boil for about 10 minutes, then add the lentils. Keep it on a high heat, stirring occasionally. Once the butternut starts to get soft, mash it and stir into the soup. Add chickpeas and chilli. Stir in the cream and remove from heat. Serve with crumbled feta and coriander leaves.
Wine suggestion:
Harry Reginald Haddon, Getaway wine blogger, suggests Adi Badenhorst Secateurs Chenin to go with the Moroccan butternut soup. This wine is is ripe and rich with some honeyed notes.
