Butternut squash and red lentil soup

This is a lovely hearty soup for autumn and winter, making the most of butternut squash, which is currently in season!

Ingredients:

Serves 4

2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic
Glug of vermouth/white wine*
A medium butternut squash
150g dried split red lentils
800ml vegetable stock
1 tsp chili flakes
Salt and pepper, to season

* Make sure to use a vegan white wine if this recipe needs to be vegan, as some wines are made using refining products derived from animals, such as gelatin

Method:

1. Start heating the olive oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, and slice the onions into half moons.
2. Add the onions to the pan, and fry until golden brown – about 10 minutes. While the onions are cooking, finely chop the garlic, and chop up the butternut squash into small chunks.
3. Add the garlic to the pan and cook for a minute, before adding the vermouth/white wine to deglaze the pan (this just means get any brown bits off the bottom of the pan).
4. Rinse the lentils, then add them to the pan along with the stock, butternut squash and chili flakes.
5. Simmer for 30 – 45 minutes, until the butternut squash is very soft. At this point, season to taste with salt and pepper.
6. Depending on how chunky you like your soup, you can either leave it as is, use a blender to make it super smooth, or do what I do and just use a potato masher in the pan to smooth the soup out a bit, while still leaving a few chunks of butternut in there.
7. Serve with bread for dunking!