Butternut Squash & Lentil Soup

There is an absolute rule at home that we do not attempt to make soup. For a family of cooking enthusiasts we are pretty terrible at it and it notoriously results in disaster - how you can go quite so wrong I do not know. So today I decided to break all the rules - call me a maverick but you don't get anywhere staying inside your comfort zones, do you? I am also limited to a relatively liquid diet (thanks to a nasty spell of mumps), had lots of leftover lentils and am currently obsessed with coconut.

As it happens, this actually turned out pretty well so I thought it was worth sharing.

This is a slightly wintery soup but the coconut gives it an exotic touch that is getting me excited for summer.

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

250-300g of butternut squash (about 1 cup)
3 carrots
750ml vegetable stock (or water seasoned with herbs, salt and pepper)
1 1/2 cups of lentils
100ml of coconut milk
100g of coconut cream
1 tablespoon of ginger
a sprig of rosemary

If your lentils are not yet cooked, start by rinsing them and placing them in a pan with vegetable stock.

Peel the carrots and butternut squash and cut into chunks. Place them into the pan with ginger and a little salt and pepper. Leave to boil for about 5 minutes on a low heat before adding the coconut milk.

Once the vegetables start to soften, add the coconut cream and allow to dissolve. If your lentils are already cooked, add them to the pan too. Once the coconut cream has dissolved, remove the pan from the heat and pour the contents into a food processor. Blend until a smooth, creamy liquid forms, adding a little water if it is too thick. If you are using a hand blender, make sure you let the contents cool before blending so that you don't burn yourself!

Once a smooth soup is formed, pop it back on the hob to heat up or store in a tuppaware for later. Serve with a sprig of rosemary - mainly because it looks pretty but also because it tastes good too!