Express Soup

Sometimes when I cook from Nigella Express with the subtitle 'good food fast.good food fast.good food fast' as if it's an express train speeding along, I am forced to concede I am cooking from a 'stopping all stations to Richmond and then express to Camberwell'! I love this soup, but cannot find pre-packaged diced butternut pumpkin and sweet potato. I have to cut my own. So, not as express as it could be, though hardly a huge effort to do a little chunky chopping.

Butternut and Sweet Potato Soup
I doubled quantities, and it is hardly more effort
350g diced butternut pumpkin and sweet potato/kumara from a packet *or* roughly equal quantities to a similar weight of kumara and butternut pumpkin diced yourself
750ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground mace (I only have nutmeg)
good grinding of pepper
4 tsp buttermilk

Put the diced vegetables in a saucepan with the hot stock of choice, the cinnamon and mace or nutmeg. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 15 minutes, or until the veggies are tender, add pepper to taste.

If you have the option to leave it cool a little do, otherwise proceed with caution as you use your blender to puree the soup. Use a tea-towel over the lid (and remove the centre nozzle if you can beforehand) to hold the lid down. You don't want your soup exploding all over your kitchen.

Pour the blended soup into bowls and garnish with swirls of buttermilk, two teaspoon's per bowlful.

Serves 2

If you have children, they may enjoy being presented with a smiley face or their name written with buttermilk over the soup. Otherwise, they might like to drizzle their own pattern over as mine do. Takes little to make lunch more entertaining!

I served with this soup with a choice of Bacon, Maple Muffins and Granny's Rolls - too many carbs are never enough in our family.