Roasted Butternut and Cumin Soup with Crispy Chorizo

Slightly sweet and nicely spiced roasted butternut soup with crispy smokey chorizo. 
I saw this soup in the Delicious magazine, but I've slighlty altered some of the amounts - as I do!

1 x 1.8kg butternut squash - peeled, deseeded and cut into 2 inch chunks

a couple of glugs of olive oil 

a couple of good pinches of dried chilli flakes 

1/2 a tablespoon of cumin seeds

1 teaspoon of corriander seeds

a knob of butter

2 large onions - finely chopped

2 fat cloves of garlic - finely chopped

750ml hot chicken stock - made from 2 Knoor stock cubes

100g chorizo - sliced thinly

a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme - leaves only

Preheat your oven to 200C/400F or Gas 6 

Put the butternut peices onto a shallow baking tray and rub with olive oil - just enough to coat the butternut nicely.  
Now sprinkle over the chilli flakes and some freshly ground black pepper.  
Scatter over a few thyme leaves and pop into a hot oven for about 40 minutes, or until the butternut is cooked through. 
You will need to turn the butternut half way through cooking so it doesn't get too coloured on one side.  Once it's done remove and set aside.

 

In a dry frying pan, toast the cumin and coriander seeds - moving them about so they don't burn.

Now remove and grind them using a pestle and mortar.

Add the butter to the pan and cook the onion and garlic until nice and soft but not coloured.

Now put the butternut, onion, garlic and stock into a food processor and give it a good whizz until it's nice and smooth.  You can use a stick blender if you wish.

Stir in 2 teaspoons of the toasted and ground spice mix and have a taste.  You might want to add more.  Also add a little salt and black pepper to taste.

If you want a really smooth soup then you can pass it through a sieve, I didn't bother. 

Put the soup into a saucepan and heat until it's pipping hot.  Whilst the soup is heating fry the chorizo in a small glug og oil and serve the soup with the chorizo on top and spoon around some of the lovely orange oil ans scatter a with a few thyme leaves if you fancy.

Serve straight away with nice fresh crusty bread.