It is just far too cold!! Seriously! I have the central heating on and our home feels like I could see a penguin in the hallway at any minute! This calls for something warm and hearty and in a bowl...
Doesn't it look positively yummy honeys? It absolutely is! It's also so easy to make it practically makes itself, and best thing is you probably have the ingredients in your pantry already...
I have a little notebook (too many notebooks actually but that's a whole other story :) but in this one notebook, I write recipes once they pass "the test." That is to say once I've made it at least once or twice and it's been a hit with Hubby. This little notebook is where this recipe has come from and it seemed like the perfect thing to make during this decidedly bitter snap we're suffering through.
It's probably come from either the Asda magazine or one of those little Tesco recipe cards available in store or one of the countless cooking shows I watch or books I sit constantly flipping through looking for inspiration. If anyone knows please leave me a comment because it's one of our favourite soups and I'd love to give credit where it's due. I'm thinking it might be Asda because I never miss their monthly magazine particularly to try out the recipes, they're fabulous. Without further ado then honeys...
Warming Winter Soup
Ingredients:
1 medium sized onion
1 stick of celery
A little olive oil
A small butternut squash
1 carton (or tin) of chopped tomatoes
2-3 tablespoons of tomato puree
A 300g can of cannellini beans (I've used butter beans too, still yummy, or if you don't have a can of beans just skip them, it's fine honeys)
600ml stock made with 1 vegetable stock cube
A bag of baby spinach
120g spaghetti
1 small baguette
1 clove of garlic
Directions:
1. Peel and finely chop your onion, place to one side.
2. Wash and roughly chop the celery, again place to one side.
3. Peel and roughly dice the butternut squash. Just a thought here honeys, why is something so yummy so difficult to cut with arthritic hands? I've discovered recently though that most supermarkets and frozen food stores have frozen, cubed butternut squash in their freezer section! Yaaay!! If you have this, chuck in maybe 2-3 cups worth, so much easier on the hands 😊
4. Add a little olive oil to a large pan and heat over a low heat. Once the oil is heated add the celery and onions and cook over a medium heat for a couple of minutes until soft.
5. Add the butternut squash to the pan and continue to cook, stirring occasionally until the butternut squash has begun to soften, approximately ten minutes.
6. Add the chopped tomatoes and the tomato puree and mix through.
7. Continue stirring and add the (drained) can of cannellini beans and vegetable stock. When everything is combined allow to simmer for a further approximately five minutes.
8. Breaking the spaghetti into short pieces, add it to the pan and stir though. Continue to simmer for 12-14 minutes or until the spaghetti is cooked.
9. While the soup is simmering, wash the spinach. When the spaghetti is cooked, add the spinach to the pan and simmer for a further minute or two until your spinach has wilted.
10. Remove pan from heat.
11. Pre-heat the grill and slice the baguette into thick slices. Make your garlic bread by either drizzling a little olive oil over one side of the garlic bread and then rubbing a piece of peeled sliced garlic over the olive oil coated side of the bread and grill until golden.
or
If you prefer, you could spread garlic butter onto the baguette slices once they've been grilled. I prefer the olive oil method but whichever you prefer honeys.
12. Serve your yummy soup & bread and enjoy 😋
I adore this recipe because it's so. so easy to swap out ingredients. Don't have any squash in the pantry? Use swede or turnip. Don't have a can of cannellini beans why not use butter beans instead (lima beans) or skip the beans altogether. It's up to you honeys, and will be equally wonderful and yummy 😊
The snow is gone here (for now) and we're back to rain. I never thought I'd be so glad to see the rain come back. I'm Scottish, rain I know :) Now if we can please have the temperature go up a bit? at least higher than the 1C we're at now which is nippy on the wee toes I can tell you, even in slippers. I'm just not made for cold weather honeys, hibernation should be an option for chilly wee Rosies :)
I could easily go snuggle under a warm duvet around late October every year and be happy to nap till some time around mid-late March when Hubby could wake me up with a lovely cup of tea just in time to see the garden start to wake from it's long, winter nap and for sunny days to arrive for me to be able to start pegging my laundry outside...
Such joy!! What? Don't judge me! I love what I love and I soooo love pegging out laundry 😍 Oh well, I can dream 😊 What's making you smile today dear ones? Till next time, stay warm, sending heaps of squeezy huggles xxx
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