Butternut Squash and Sage Soup

My hand blender blew up. By 'blew up' I refer to a plume of weird blue smoke that stole out of it accompanied by the almost medicinal smell of burning electrics. It is, needless to say, dead.

Soup was off the menu in my house for a while, unless it was chunky chicken soup or some other equally unglamorous, but tasty, pottage. Or so I thought, until I remembered as a child, blending a lovely leak and potato soup with Mum, in a food processor. More washing up, but the same results.

Butternut squash and sage is one of those easy but really classy tasting soups. It's perfect for a dinner party starter, as it can be made the day before and just reheated at the last minute. You can make it with the superbly seasonal pumpkin instead of butternut squash, add a level teaspoon of sugar if you do, just to give it a touch of sweetness against the exceedingly savoury sage.

This recipe also calls for chicken stock, vegetable stock is fine if you are catering for vegetarians, however I urge you to use fresh rather than stock cubes. The difference in taste between the two is quite stark in this recipe.

You will need:

500g butternut squash cubed
a small onion diced finely
half a litre of chicken or vegetable stock
150 ml double cream
50g butter
half a dozen fresh sage leaves, chopped
several whole leaves to garnish

Using a large saucepan, melt the butter on a medium heat and fry the onion until it is soft and sweet, do not let it colour.

Add the butternut squash or pumpkin and warm through. Next add the stock and chopped sage leaves and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and allow the soup to simmer for about half an hour, until the squash is really soft and breaks up when you fork it.

Season well and liquidise, add the cream and warm through gently.

Serve with a sage leaf on the top.