I started with a large Iron Bark squash (approximately 3.5kg). I put it in a roasting tin in the oven at 160 degrees for 1 hour 10 minutes, til it was soft when gently prodded. This is it with the skin being stripped off after cooking:
Meanwhile the stock veg (carrot, celery and onion) were softened in a stock pot in some olive oil, then about 500ml of stock added. Sometimes I use homemade chicken stock, this time it was a Kallo organic stock cube - they're not too salty. The stock volume isn't a fixed thing, it depends how thick you like you soup and how watery the rest of the ingredients are. I like to use less liquid at this stage because I can always add it later, once its been pureed.
Once the squash has cooled a bit, I peel off all the skin, halve the squash and scoop out all the seeds and add the flesh to the stock veg. I also add a teaspoon of turmeric, half a teaspoon of cumin, a pinch of chilli powder and some freshly ground black pepper.
Then it gets blitzed down with my trusty Sainsbury's Basics stick blender (£4.99 - bargain!!).
This time I ended up with 10 servings for the freezer, that's two weeks worth of work lunches for the price of some seeds and a stock cube - another bargain!!
