Purple Sage and Butternut Squash Soup

It was the first Saturday in August and the month of my Birthday. A lot had happened in the year since my last Birthday had taken place. Some things I could have predicted, others I couldn't have. That's life though. You just roll with it and find the way to make the best of it always. 

Plans had changed on this particular Saturday as the anticipated game of Cricket was cancelled at the eleventh hour. Instead Dogg and I went searching for exotic butterflies and found colonies of Common Blue and Small Copper in a new part of the local area.

On our return home it was time to make a Soup to keep me going through the weekend. I plumped for a variation upon a traditional Butternut Squash Soup Recipe.

On the player was Robert Wyatt's "Rock Bottom". This mournful record was produced by the former Soft Machine Drummer after a life-changing fall had left him partially paralysed and unable to drum. He therefore had to re-model his career on his hypnotic, high- pitched voice. The challenges he must have faced put what I had faced in my personal life in the last year into context and made me realise they weren't glitches at all. 

The ingredients for this soup were as follows: 

One Butternut Squash, cubed, peeled & de-seeded.
Six Spring Onions topped and tailed but not cut up.
One White Onion peeled, topped, tailed and sliced thinly.
Two teaspoons of Paprika.
One clove of Garlic, topped, tailed and then diced.
Seven leaves of Purple Sage.
Half a pint of vegetable stock
Three ounces of grated Parmesan Cheese.
Four leaves of Purple Sage to Garnish.
Pine Nuts to Garnish.

The method was as follows:

1. Sweat the Squash Pieces, Spring Onions, Garlic, White Onion, Paprika and Seven leaves of Purple Sage in Olive Oil on a medium heat in a Le Cresceut with the lid on for thirty minutes. Stir regularly to avoid ingredients sticking to the base of the Le Cresceut.

2. Add the Stock and simmer for a further half an hour with the lid off the Le Cresceut.

3. Take off the heat, leave the ingredients to cool and then blend them.

4. Return the Soup to the Le Cresceut and warm through.

5. Serve and add to the serving bowl the remaining four leaves of Purple Sage, the Pine Nuts and Parmesan Cheese to decorate.

This soup was certainly a rich one thanks to the taste of the Parmesan, Purple Sage and the Pine Nuts. All these ingredients gave the flavour of the healthy but bland Butternut Squash a real boost also.