Kitchen Garden Forum

Help.
I've been away for a week and come back to find about half a dozen or so butternuts beginning to rot round the stalk. They need using quick. Has anyone a tasty soup recipe I could use them up with. I find squash a bit bland without something to give it more flavour.

Beryl.

You could try adding fresh root ginger, a bit of hot chilli chopped finely and some dry fried black mustard and cumin seeds. I also made a milder one with leeks, garlic and a generous helping of lemon thyme. The last one is also good with parsnips instead of the squash.

I mixed mine with carrot and parsnips , then added chilli in some and fresh ginger in the other half , after blitzing I added cooked chickpeas and chucks of another butternut which I had roasted in the oven first .

By roasting them it is so much easier to get off the skins , peeling is hard and waste a lot of the flesh. Plus adds to the flavour.

Homemade chicken carcass stock and chopped smoked bacon.

I find that you can get a reasonable flavour from just butternut squash (and onion, of course) if you cut them into segments (without peeling) and oven roast them with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinking of seasoning first. Then scrape the flesh from the skin into your soup pan.

They do need to be well ripened and cured to taste their best though, and the fact that yours are starting to rot perhaps indicates that they aren't ?

Thank you all for those lovely ideas. Now I am spoilt for choice. I have lots of home made chicken stock to add, I will experiment and try different flavours- thank you.

Beryl.

They also make a great veg baked, then mashed with cream cheese, black pepper and nutmeg.

Definitely agree about roasting first.

As well as soup, they're invaluable in curries or in a Paella.

At a pinch I reckon they could be used in gnocchi too

Made first batch of soup today and added some crispy chopped bacon, very tasty with a crusty roll and blue stilton cheese.

Beryl.