Spicy Butternut squash soup

This is our younger daughter's recipe. She used a BBC Good Food recipe as the starting point and made it her own.

This was enough for four of us. Total time was about 2 hours. Total cost about £3 (plus £2 for the bread).

Ingredients

1 butternut squash (about 1 kg)

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 garlic gloves

1 tablespoon dried chilli flakes

½ teaspoon paprika

800 ml vegetable stock

4 tablespoons crème fraiche

You'll need a roasting dish, a large saucepan and a blender. We used a stick blender. A large plastic food box or a large zip-tie bag will also be needed.

The skin of the butternut squash is thick, so use a good peeler or a sharp knife to pool.

Peel, deseed and dice the butternut squash.

Scoop the seeds out with a tablespoon. You can dry them off and separate the stringy bits then roast them for a snack.

Add the olive oil and paprika to a large plastic food box or a large bag. Add the diced squash, mix well and leave for an hour to absorb the flavours. You can use a bowl to do this if you don't have a box or bag to hand.

Set the oven to 180 °C/ gas 6. Fry the onions in butter over a low heat. After 5 minutes, add the garlic and chilli flakes and continue to fry.

While the onions are frying, put the squash and the oil into a roasting dish and roast for 30 minutes. Stir them at least once during the roasting.

After 30 minutes the squash will be soft (squashy!) and the onions slightly caramelised. Add the vegetable stock to the onions.

Squash, diced and roasted!

Take the squash out of the oven and add this to the stock.

Add the roasted squash to the onions and stock. This adds some much-needed colour to the soup.

Using the stick blender (or other device), liquidise the soup until it's smooth and lump-free.

Warm through and add the crème fraiche either to the completed soup or swirl into each serving as you dish up.

Finished soup . We got some crusty bread to go with it. A sprinkling of parmesan would also add to the flavour.

We got some nice bread to go with this, though regular Warburtons (or other sliced bread) is fine as well.