Like most food, the best vegetable soups are made with fresh, preferably organic vegetables. This recipe is a lovely warm winter soup, made with all organic vegetables and herbs. Many butternut soup recipes use milk or chicken stock and spices.

This recipe is perfect for the health conscious, vegans, and is detox-friendly (tried and tested). It contains no milk, no chicken or any other stock, and is not laden with spices! It uses natural, fresh ingredients which results in a fantastic and healthy soup. It can be made ahead and kept in the fridge for up to three days. It is lovely and filling on its own or served with whole-wheat bread and salt free butter.

This recipe serves 4, and takes approximately one hour from start till finish.

Utensils:

• Hand blender
• Chef's knife
  

Ingredients:

• 10 ml olive oil (not extra virgin)
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 2 sticks celery, chopped
• 2 leeks, trimmed and chopped
• 1 clove garlic, bruised and roughly chopped
• 2 potatoes with skin, washed and chopped
• 3 cups peeled, roughly chopped butternut
• 2 good quality bay leaves
• Few sprigs each fresh parsley and thyme, rinsed well
• Fresh black pepper
• Sea salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  

Method:
Heat up a pot and add olive oil (not extra virgin), taking care not to let the oil overheat and burn. Sauté leeks, onions, and celery until onions are transparent. Take care not to burn the vegetables, deglazing with water as needed. (Deglaze: Adding a liquid to a pan as the pan starts catching, then scraping/loosening the brown bits at the bottom of the pan.)

Add the garlic and chopped potato to the pot and continue sautéing, still deglazing as necessary. (Bruised garlic: Method: With garlic clove on a chopping board, lay chefs knife horizontally on clove (blade facing side ways). Bang flat side of chef's knife with palm of hand to squash the garlic clove. By doing this you release the aromas of the garlic clove to expose more intense flavor.)

Add chopped butternut, and continue sautéing for another five minutes or so.

Now add cold water (purified / filtered is best), to cover the vegetables. Add bay leaves, parsley and thyme on the sprigs. Grind some black pepper into the soup, cover and simmer for 20 - 30 minutes till all the vegetables are cooked. Do not over cook the soup, as this causes preventable vitamin loss.

As soon as soup is cooked, remove thyme, parsley and both bay leaves. Add nutmeg and about one teaspoon of sea salt. Let the soup cool down a bit, then blend with hand blender till completely smooth. Season with additional salt and black pepper as needed.

• Miracle Soups - Over 70 Recipes for Great Health