Creamy Spiced Butternut Squash & Coconut Soup

 Butternut Squash•Ginger•Chilli•Garlic•Coconut

Now, I hope you'll forgive me for posting a hot, spicy soup recipe in the middle of July but this was just too good not too. Besides, maybe it's winter where you are....or maybe you live in Ireland like me! I'm kidding, actually the summer here so far has been incredible BUT we can have summers where all you want is a hot bowl of soup - that's no lie :-) One bonus is that this recipe doesn't roast the squash first so at least the oven won't have to be on!

I made this as I had a couple butternut squashes to experiment with and while I have often made soup with them I've always just 'winged it' and thus had no recipe to pass on. So, I thought I would jot down what I did this time so I could actually share it ;-)

This is such an easy, simple soup to make; it comes together in no time and has great flavour from the ginger, chilli, garlic and coconut. It's super creamy and even thicker the next day. I also got to use my new Froothie Optimum 9400 high performance blender here and I really didn't think it would make a big difference as obviously my old blender could process soups...but wow, not like this - it did such an incredible job, it only took seconds and the texture is absolutely silky smooth! Before, my pureed soups - especially with squash, would have a slightly fibrous texture but this one is like velvet, gorgeous!

Creamy Spiced Butternut Squash & Coconut Soup:

serves 4

1 small-medium butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and cubed

(You'll need 470g prepared weight or 4 cups.)

2 Tbsp virgin coconut oil

2 onions, diced - 150g / 1 heaping cup

1½ Tbsp finely chopped garlic (2 large cloves)

1½ Tbsp finely chopped red chilli (1 large), I de-seed , if you want it spicier, throw them in! 

2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger

850ml / 3½ cups vegetable stock, I made mine with 3 tsp Marigold organic vegan bouillon powder which has turmeric added, if you are using a different stock powder I recommend adding a little turmeric here - maybe 1/2 tsp?

4 Tbsp full fat coconut milk

sea salt to taste - I added 1/8 tsp

Melt the coconut oil in a large saucepan then add the onion, fry until soft and transparent. Add the chilli, garlic and ginger and fry gently another minute. Add the cubed squash and stir until they are well coated in the oil and fry a couple of minutes. Add the hot stock, give it a good stir then cover and simmer for about 15 minutes or until the squash is really tender. Stir in the coconut milk then blitz in a blender until really, really smooth. Return to the saucepan to warm up, taste and season with salt if need be. Serve with a swirl of coconut milk if you want to be fancy ;-)

Disclaimer: Froothie sent me an Optimum 9400 for review and this post contains affiliated links. If you purchase a blender through my link a little commission is thrown my way :-) All views regarding the blender are entirely my own.

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Nutritional Information: for 1 serving out of 4

Calories: 171

Protein: 2.9g

Fat: 9.8g

Sat Fat: 8.5g

Fibre: 3.2g

Carbs: 21g

Sugar: 5.1g

Sodium: 830g (will vary depending on stock used)

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Chilli Roasted Butternut Squash,
Soba Noodles + Creamy
Miso-Tahini Sauce

Chilli Roasted Butternut Squash with Soba Noodles and a Creamy Miso-Tahini Sauce

You know what I love about this dish? Besides it being absolutely delicious of course, is that it's one of those dishes only a vegan could come up with... Ok, maybe that's a bit bold of a statement, but: miso, tahini, soba, squash, chilli, mirin....I love that we can and do brazingly use such ingredients together. I'll say it again, my food repertoire has skyrocketed since turning vegan and I love it. Back when I was vegetarian this squash probably would have been with spaghetti and a cream sauce. This dish proves that being forced to think outside the box definitely has it's advantages.

The butternut squash is roasted with olive oil, bit of thyme, salt and lots of chilli, the natural sweetness of the squash comes out here to balance the heat. Another counter to the heat is the sauce: sweet white miso with a touch of sweet mirin balances really well with the chilli squash. Oh and it's amazing too, super creamy and sublime! Then the nutty tahini and soba noodles simply add another taste dimension here and brings it all together.

For a fancy looking dish this was so easy to put together and feels like it has more calories than it does. With all the lovely butternut squash in the shops right now it's a perfect autumn dinner. The garnish of black sesame seeds and chives are entirely optional but do make a really nice touch.

A note about the chilli, I initially used 1 tsp as I've written in the recipe here but that was probably my heat limit here. You might want to use 3/4 tsp if you don't like things too hot, although I am a bit of a heat wimp!

Chilli Roasted Butternut Squash with Soba Noodles and a Creamy Miso-Tahini Sauce: serves 2

1/2 a med/large butternut squash. I used about 380g prepared weight
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
1/8 tsp dried thyme
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2 Tbsp sweet white miso
2 Tbsp tahini
1 Tbsp rice vinegar (unseasoned)
1/2 Tbsp mirin
1/2 clove garlic, pureed
1/8 tsp salt
50 - 100ml water
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100g dry weight soba noodles
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fresh chives
black sesame seeds

Preheat the oven to 220C. To prepare the squash, slice it in half lengthways then scoop out any seeds and fibrous parts. Next slice it into 1 " slices. Peel these slices then chop them into chunks, about the size you in the picture there. In a small bowl whisk together the olive oil, thyme, salt and chilli flakes. Tip the squash into a roasting tin then pour over the oil. Toss it well until the squash is well coated then pop it in the oven. Roast for about 20 - 30 minutes giving the pan a shake now and again. I also pulled it out and turned each squash about halfway through as shaking wasn't flipping them over. You want them soft and some edges getting nicely charred.

Meanwhile cook the soba noodles according to package instructions. You want them warm here so don't do it too early, they tend to only take about 6-7 minutes to cook.

For the sauce simply add everything but the water to a small saucepan and bring to heat stirring all the while. Add the water, 50 ml first then add more if needed until it is a thick yet pourable sauce. Taste and check seasoning.

When everything is ready simply place the soba noodles onto plates, top with the squash then spoon over the sauce, you probably won't need all of it here so you can leave any extra on the table for family/guests to add more if they like. Garnish with a sprinkling of chopped fresh chives and black sesame seeds and serve warm.

Source: Sauce recipe based on Clearspring's Miso-Tahini Dressing.

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Nutritional Information: based on 1 serving

Calories: 443

Fat: 16.2g

Sat Fat: 2.2g

Protein: 11.9g

Fibre: 6.1g

Carbs: 67.9g

Sugar: 6.7g

Sodium: 1312mg

Calcium: 114mg

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Warm Roasted Butternut Squash and Pecan Salad

This is such a simple but delicious salad, it's perfect as a main dish salad but a smaller portion would make a fantastic starter if you have guests over.  Recipe is based on one I saw in the Irish Food and Wine magazine and I couldn't resist making it as I love roasted squash and pecans. It's lightly spiced with warming cumin seed and ground ginger and slightly sweetened with some maple syrup. I made this after a long day shopping in Cork and it was one of those meals you just relaxed and savoured with a good glass of white wine and some lightly toasted slices of ciabatta. Perfect.... :-)

Warm Roasted Butternut Squash and Pecan Salad: serves 2 as a main

1 small butternut squash, about 300 - 350g before prepping
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cumin seed
12 whole pecans
75g rocket
juice of 1/4 of a lemon
black pepper

Preheat oven to 180C. Slice the squash in half, slice off the top then scoop out the seeds. Slice each half into equal size wedges, I got 6 slices out of each half. In a bowl mix together 1 Tbsp of the olive oil, maple syrup, salt, cumin seeds, ginger and a couple grinds of black pepper. Toss the squash in this then scrape it all into a roasting tin and roast for 25 - 30 minutes or until tender. The original recipe also said to cook until lightly charred and the skins in their photo looked quite black. As you can see mine never got near to that but the flesh was perfectly cooked at that point so I took them out then.  Add the pecans with 5 minutes remaining to heat them up.

Remove the squash and pecans to a large bowl. Deglaze the pan with the lemon juice and 1 Tbsp cold water. Pour roasting juices into a bowl then slowly whisk in the other 1 Tbsp of olive oil. Toss the rocket in this dressing with your hands until all leaves are coated then place on a plate. Top with the warm squash and pecans and serve immediately.

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Roasted Garlic, Zucchini and Lemon Quinoa with Red Kidney Beans and Pine Nuts

First of all let me explain that I did quite overcook my quinoa here! Oooops....like I mentioned in the post below - losing my cooking mojo!!! So don't cook yours until you end up with quinoa porridge like I did :) Despite that, this was delicious and so nutritious! I was inspired by Susan's recent post over at The Fat Free Vegan Kitchen for Lemony Quinoa with Butternut Squash.

I will just direct you over there for the recipe but I made these changes to suit my tastes and what I had to cook with. I replaced the butternut squash with zucchini as butternut's not my fav and I had some zucchini to use up. Roasted the chopped zucchini, shallot and garlic and fresh thyme with 1 tsp olive oil and salt and pepper for about 20 minutes, added about 65g drained red kidney beans per person to make it more a main dish than side and increased the lemon juice as I do like things very lemony :) I also just cooked the quinoa in water, not stock. At the end I drizzled another tsp of olive oil around just before serving. Lovely, and can't wait to make it again without overcooking the quinoa! (note - changes are for 1 serving)

Roasted Sweet Potato & Pecan Salad with Mixed Leaf & Beetroot and a Maple-Balsamic Dressing

This is actually a revamped version of the Warm Butternut Squash and Pecan Salad that is already on the blog. After the Thanksgiving Weekend we just had I had quite a bit of both butternut squash and sweet potato leftover that needed using up. I first made it as is with the butternut squash and omitting the cumin seed and it was as good as it always was. Then I made it with sweet potato and decided to use a maple-balsamic dressing as opposed to roasting it with maple syrup and Oh.My.Word. This was delicious! I was just going to update that post but decided that this salad deserved it's own post, front and centre on the blog ;-) 

I'm usually not keen on beetroot but it went really well with this salad. I'm thinking that earthiness beetroot has was countered nicely by the sweet potato and maple dressing. Now, I cheated here and used a bagged mixed leaf that had shredded beetroot already added. You can easily add your own here and I do recommend it, however I'm afraid I'll have to direct you to searching on how to cook and add the beetroot elsewhere though as it's a vegetable I never work with! (Sorry - bad blogger!!) 

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we had a great meal and an altogether great weekend, you can read all about it on the daily blog. Also, do you like my little homemade pumpkin candles there? I found these mini pumpkins in the English Market here in Cork and just carved them out to house a little tea light. They were scattered on the table for Thanksgiving dinner, looked really good all lit up!

Roasted Sweet Potato and Pecan Salad with Mixed Leaf and Beetroot with a Maple-Balsamic Dressing

Serves 2 as a main dish salad

• about 270g peeled weight sweet potato, diced

• 2 tsp olive oil

• 50g whole pecans

• 180g mixed leaf, I bought one with shredded beetroot in it, or you can easily add your own. 

• 2 shallots, sliced

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• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

• ½ Tbsp maple syrup

• ¼ tsp Dijon mustard

•¹/_{8 tsp salt}

_{• 3 grinds of black pepper}

_{Preheat the oven to 200C. Toss the sweet potato in the 2 teaspoons of olive oil and spread out in a roasting tin. Roast for 25 minutes or until tender and slightly charred at the edges. Add the whole pecans when there is 5 minutes left.}

_{Whisk together all the dressing ingredients except the oil. Slowly add the oil whisking all the while until incorporated. Toss most of the dressing with the leaf and shallots then divide amongst two plates.}

_{Top with the warm roasted sweet potato and pecans and a drizzle of more dressing then serve immediately.} 

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Source: Dressing based on this recipe.

Nutritional Information: based on 1 serving.

Calories: 475

Fat: 36.8g

Sat Fat: 4.2g

Protein: 5.5g

Carbs: 36.7g

Sugar: 9.6g

Fibre: 6.4g

Sodium: 243mg

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Baby Spinach Salad with Sage Roasted Sweet Potato, Walnuts and Almond Feta

So, I had some ingredients leftover from Easter dinner, for those who don't know I always make the Eggplant Rollatini with Marinara Sauce over Spaghetti from Veganomicon. Such an amazing meal - there are some photos from last year on the now defunct daily blog. I do make a few changes to the recipe in the cookbook though - mainly I fill the rollatini with basil almond feta and use my own vegan parmesan recipe in the breading mixture. In the end I had a big bag of spinach and half a recipe of the almond feta in the fridge so came up with this salad for dinner the next day.

This is really another variation of a couple salads I already have on the blog: the Roasted Sweet Potato and Pecan Salad with Mixed Leaf and Beetroot and a Maple Balsamic Dressing AND the Warm Roasted Butternut Squash and Pecan Salad but still unique in it's own right and absolutely delicious! 

This was also inspired by someone on twitter who contacted me saying they made a dish using roasted sweet potato, sage and the almond feta (possibly walnuts too but I don't think it was a salad). Unfortunately I can't find the tweet as it was so long ago so I can't give credit or thanks - if it was you let me know! 

The flavours of sweet potato, sage and walnuts go so well with the almond feta and while I was debating what kind of dressing to put with this it dawned on me that with all those strong flavours all this salad really needed to finish it off was a simple drizzle of good quality extra virgin olive oil. Perfect.

Baby Spinach Salad with Roasted Sweet Potato, Sage, Walnuts and Almond Feta
(serves 1 as a main dish)

• Good handful of baby spinach leaves
• 1 small sweet potato, peeled, about 130g prepared weight
• ½ Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp dried sage
• 5 grinds of black pepper
• 20g unsalted walnuts, roughly chopped
• about 30g Almond Feta, crumbled
• extra olive oil to drizzle
• fresh chives, snipped

Preheat the oven to 200C. Chop the peeled sweet potato into medium size dice and place in a small roasting tin. Whisk together the olive oil, sage, salt and pepper. Drizzle this over the sweet potato then toss with your hands until the potato is all coated in oil. Roast in the oven for 20 minutes, tossing the potato a couple of times. Add the chopped walnuts, give it a stir and pop it back in the oven for another 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Toss the spinach with a small drizzle of olive oil and place on a plate. Top with the warm sage roasted sweet potato and walnuts, crumble over the almond feta then give it a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Snip over some fresh chives and enjoy :-)

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Nutritional Information: 

Calories: 509

Protein: 9.4g

Fat: 40.4g

Sat Fat: 4.6g

Fibre: 7.4g

Carbs: 32.4g

Sugar: 6.4g

Fibre: 7.4g

Sodium: 723mg

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Butternut Squash, Mushroom and Sage Pasta

This was very good, I haven't actually used squash or pumpkin that much except in sweet dishes or soup so wanted to try this. It's going on the regular dinner rotation for sure. Recipe come from BBC Good Food and I followed it as is except instead of frying the squash in water I used veg stock to add more flavour as it never called for salt at any stage.

1 Tbsp olive oil
300g prepared weight butternut squash
2 large cloves garlic
5 small sage leaves, roughly chopped
150g mushrooms, sliced
175g pasta, any shape you like
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 pint veg stock made with 1 tsp marigold vegan granules

Heat oil in a non stick pan then fry the squash, garlic, sage and lots of freshly ground black pepper for a few minutes until beginning to brown (mine never did!) Add some stock then cook fiercely for 15 minutes adding more stock as needed. When the squash is tender and it looks more dry add the mushrooms and fry for 5 minutes, stirring now and again until everything begins to caramelise. Meanwhile cook the pasta, drain then add to the squash mixture adding more stock if too dry. Stir well and serve with more pepper on top and some smoked sea salt to taste.

Warm Portobello Mushroom, Asparagus and Black Eyed Bean Spinach Salad with Balsamic Dressing

Well, in keeping with my promise to bombard you with asparagus recipes for their short lived season, here's another one for you! Those of you who follow my daily food diary will know I was having this for lunch quite often as I just couldn't get enough of it. I chose to add the black eyed beans simply for some added protein but the flavour and texture is really nice in there as well. That being said you can replace with your favourite bean or just omit them altogether.

As for the oil, lately I've been using this locally produced Virgin Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil from Donegal and have been really impressed with it. I don't know how much of a difference it's made in the flavour of this dish as opposed to using extra virgin olive oil but it's delicious and I'm now a convert ;-) I particularly love that I can use an oil that's been locally produced as not surprisingly, olive oil isn't produced in Ireland!

Oh, and if you don't like asparagus, you'll be glad to hear this will be my last asparagus post this season :-D


Warm Portobello Mushroom, Asparagus and Black Eyed Bean Spinach Salad with Balsamic Dressing: Serves 1


50g baby spinach
50g black eyed beans, from a tin drained and rinsed.
50g asparagus, sliced into thirds, try and use thin stalks here.
1 large portobello mushroom, sliced
1 large shallot, sliced
1 tsp virgin rapeseed oil, or extra virgin olive oil
pinch of sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
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1 Tbsp virgin rapeseed oil, or extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, pureed
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1/8 tsp salt
couple grinds of black pepper


First make the dressing by measuring the oil into a small bowl. Slowly add the vinegar, whisking all the while until fully incorporated. Add the mustard and whisk until thick and smooth (no more little mustard dots should appear). Whisk in the salt, garlic and pepper. Set aside.


Measure the spinach and beans into a large bowl and set aside. Heat the oil in a large frying pan then add the mushrooms, shallots and asparagus. Fry on high heat for a couple minutes and add a pinch of sea salt and a couple grinds of black pepper. Reduce heat to low and fry until the mushrooms are cooked and the asparagus is tender. There shouldn't be any liquid left as well. 


Give the dressing another good whisk then pour over the spinach and beans and toss really well. Place in a bowl or on a plate then top with the hot mushroom/asparagus mixture. Serve immediately.

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Nutritional Information: using virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil.

Calories: 275

Protein: 9.1g

Fat: 19.1g

Sat Fat: 1.4g

Fibre: 5g

Carbs: 20.5g

Sugar: 3.1g

Sodium: 636mg

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So I don't think I mentioned it but I got a lot of great foody gifts for Christmas this year. People know me so well ;-) I got Madhur Jaffrey's Curry Bible Cookbook, which I can't wait to delve into, The Flavour Thesauraus which is very interesting, a spice grinder, the waffle maker of course and "Plate to Pixel"  a book on food photography by Helen Dujardin who blogs at Tartelette. It has fantastic tips in there that I am already utilizing and I will hopefully get my photos as best I can with a point and shoot camera. Oh DSLR one day you will be mine!

As well as being a great reference book there are a few recipes in it to accompany the photos and one of them was a sweet potato and black bean wrap. Of course being a book on food photography it just looked stunning and as I had a huge bag of sweet potatoes to make my way through I instantly set about veganizing and making it my own.

This was so delicious and satisfying, I absolutely loved the cumin roasted sweet potato in there with the black beans - which might just be my new favourite bean (watch out Mr. Flageolet!) They both went beautifully with the Chilli Lime Yogurt Dressing which is basically soy yogurt, lime juice and zest and a bit of this spicy inferno chilli sauce by Mic's Chilli - an Irish company, yay!

I just love the bottle - how cute is that label?!?! As you can see, I bought the 'lite' and OMG it is still fierce!! I dare think what the full strength is like, but then again, I'm not the strongest when it comes to spice ;-) This sauce went so well in this as I definitely picked up flavours of cumin in it, it's very 'Mexican' flavoured but as this specific sauce will be hard to find for those outside of Ireland any spicy chilli sauce would do, possibly even Tabasco.

Cumin Roasted Sweet Potato and Black Bean Wrap with a Chilli Lime Yogurt Dressing: 

makes 1 wrap

1 small sweet potato, about 100g peeled

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/8 tsp salt

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1 spring onion, chopped

40g drained and rinsed tinned black beans, about 1/4 cup

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50g soy yogurt, about 3 Tbsp

lime zest

1/2 Tbsp fresh lime juice

1/8 tsp salt

1/4 tsp chilli sauce

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1 large wholemeal wrap

Preheat the oven to 200C/ 400F. Peel and dice the sweet potato fairly small, remember this is going in a wrap so you don't want them too big.

Place the sweet potato in a small bowl and toss with the olive oil, cumin seeds and salt. Spread onto a baking tray and roast for 15 minutes, tossing them once. They should be fork tender and some edges turning golden brown. Set aside to cool.

Make your dressing by simply whisking everything together. Cover and chill in the fridge if you have done this beforehand. The soy yogurt does make this fairly runny, using tofutti sour cream would give you a thicker sauce but I'm trying to use ingredients these days that more people can buy, and I'm hoping soy yogurt is more readily available than sour cream. That being said, both will work here.

Take your wrap and heat it gently on a dry non stick frying pan, just until warm as this will make it more pliable to wrap.

Lay it out and place your sweet potato (make sure you add any wayward cumin seeds) down the centre and leave a space at the bottom for wrapping. Lay the beans beside the sweet potato then spoon over some dressing and finally sprinkle over the spring onion.

Fold the end over then roll the wrap up and enjoy! I had mine with some extra dressing near by to spoon over as I ate simply because I love that dressing ;-)

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Nutritional Information: approx based on 1 wrap, will vary depending on brand/size of wrap and how much dressing used.

Calories: 391

Fat: 13.5g

Sat Fat: 3.7g

Fibre: 10.3g

Carbs: 58.1g

Sugar: 5.6g

Protein: 11.2g

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