Chipotle Bonfire Soup

This isn’t for the faint hearted, as it’s pretty fiery (hence the name). Chipotles are basically smoked chillies, and they add a really deep smoky flavour. You’ll notice a lot of the soups I post at the moment are quite similar, and that’s because when it’s cold outside I crave nothing more than a bowl of something orange and spicy. I really like this recipe as you can put everything in the oven, and forget about it while your house starts to smell amazing, then just simmer and blend it all at the end. It’s a lot easier to get the skin off the peppers if you have a blowtorch, but you can use the hob.

Ingredients

2 small sweet potatoes
1 butternut squash
4 red peppers
2 medium red onions
1 bulb (not clove!) garlic
2 jalapeno peppers
2 whole chipotle chillies
2 bay leaves
1 tsp cumin
1tsp paprika
2 vegetable stock cubes

Slice the butternut squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Place on a large baking tray and spread the cumin and paprika over the flesh. Place one jalapeno, one bay leaf, and one chipotle in the hollowed out section of each squash half.

Add the onions, garlic bulb, sweet potatoes and the red peppers to the baking tray and drizzle everything with oil. Roast the ingredients for an hour at gas mark 3.

When everything’s gone soft, remove the skins from the onions, peppers, sweet potatoes and squash and transfer the flesh to your soup pot. Squeeze the innards out of the jalapenos and garlic bulb, and add to the pot.

Chuck the stock cubes, bay leaves and chipotle chillies in the pot and cover everything with boiling water. Simmer on a low heat with a lid for 15-20mins until everything’s starting to fall apart.

Fish out the bay leaves and chipotles and blend everything with a hand blender. Adjust thickness and seasoning to taste.