Butternut Cream Soup (plant-based)

Isn’t this just the most beautiful time of the year? The sun is shining more often these days, and its golden, still warm rays offer a delightful soft touch to the skin. The trees are changing their colour, as their leaves turn yellow, red and orange. Everything has a warming glow, and somehow it reminds me of my connection to mother nature. It is a transitional season, and as such it offers a great opportunity to make some changes in our life. I have been feeling this urge to shift, and change inside, as well as my surroundings. I can’t quite put my words into what it is I feel, as I am trying to understand it myself. But just as it brings me some restlessness it also makes me want to focus on what truly matters. October is at our door, and it is a perfect month to cultivate a new habit, to make a change, and work on ourselves. Just as the seasons are changing, we can tap into this natural energy and bring forth a change in ourselves too. So why don’t you take this opportunity to ask yourself where you want to see some improvement in your life. What is holding you back from becoming who you want to be, and what areas of your life are no longer serving you. Those are questions that I have been asking myself these days. Personally I have identified a few areas that I want to work on, and starting this October I am about to make some changes in my daily routine, that will help me improve my quality of life, productivity and time management. If you would like to work on yourself as well or start leading a healthier lifestyle, feel free to reach out! As I feel that this is the perfect time to make a positive change and create new habits, starting this October I am offering Group Health Coaching Sessions. The purpose of the group coaching is quite simple: it offers tools, motivation and a support group as you embark on your health journey towards a healthier lifestyle. I am purposefully keeping the coaching groups small (between 5 to 10 people), so that it is still intimate and I can dedicate enough time to each one of the participants. You can find out more about the Group Health Coaching Sessions here and here, and of course, you can always reach out to me for more information. I believe that having a support group of people, who share similar goals as you, will make you more motivated and give better results too. Also, having someone to report your progress to every week, will make you much more likely to stay consistent.

As the temperature is changing, my diet has changed accordingly too. I love to start my days with a warm porridge these days, and I tweak the recipe every day, so I don’t get bored of it. I am also enjoying more root vegetables. I find they have such a calming and grounding effect on me, which is what I really need lately. So I feast on beets, carrots, and onions, and of course – squash! Don’t you just associate October with a big, orange pumpkin? I do! 🙂 And so in the spirit of autumn and honoring the new month of October, today I want to share with you a super easy and delicious seasonal recipe. This cream soup is warming and comforting, and takes little active time to prepare. You can make a bit pot of it, this way you will have soup for the next two, three days. I am using homemade vegetable stock for this soup, and I am also using the vegetables of the stock in the soup, as I don’t like to throw anything away. 😉 I recently found lemon thyme and have been using it in most of my food. It smells is so fresh and it just gives such a delicate flavor to the food. I am using it for this recipe too, but if you can’t find it, regular thyme works fine too. Most of the preparation time of the soup is inactive, meaning you can do other things while it’s cooking, which is great for busy and multitasking people. So without further ado, let’s get to the recipe.

Plantbased butternut cream soup

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 60min (mostly inactive)
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

• 1,5 kg butternut squash (one big one or two small ones)
• 40ml coconut milk (feel free to add more if you like the coconut flavour)
• 6 cremini mushrooms, diced
• handful of lemon thyme leaves
For the vegetable stock:
• About 3 lt water
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 big onion, diced
• ½ leek (just the white, firm part of the leek), chopped thinly
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 1 pepper, diced
• handful of fresh parsley
-some fresh thyme
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 190C degrees.
2. Slice the butternut squash in half lengthwise and place it on a baking sheet. Sprinkle some salt on it and put in the oven. Let it roast for about an hour, until it becomes fragrant and soft, and slightly caramelized on top.
3. Once ready, scoop out the flesh of the squash with a spoon and discard the skin.
4. While the squash is roasting, start preparing the vegetable stock. Add all chopped vegetables and herbs to a big pot and cover them with the water. Bring to a boil, and let them simmer for about 45-50min. Strain the stock, but don’t discard the boiled vegetables just yet. You can add some of them to the soup as well.
5. Add the scooped squash and the coconut milk to the vegetable stock and using a hand blender gently puree until creamy. If you don’t have a hand blender you can use a regular blender. Simply add the squash and the stock and blend them.
6. Add a few of the stock vegetables (you can do this as you blend the soup to adjust the thickness).
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Heat up a small pan and add some olive oil. Sauté the mushrooms until golden-brown and fragrant.
9. Pour the cream soup into a bowl, and top up with the sautéed mushrooms, fresh thyme and some coconut milk if desired.

I hope you’ll enjoy this one, and if you do, please make sure you leave me a comment below! 🙂 Wishing you all a great start in the month of October!

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