heart-warming autumnal soup

i do love a slow-cooker recipe. mine gets a lot of love over the autumn and winter months. it's so quick and easy to throw a few ingredients together and leave it to work it's magic over the day, greeting you in the evening with a wonderful homely smell and infused flavours.

this recipe is definitely a tummy warmer for those chilly autumnal days. it's also great to use up what you've got in the cupboards, it's also very flexible if you don't have every ingredient to hand and quite budget-friendly now that squash/pumpkin is in season.

to feed 6 you'll need:

1kg butternut squash or pumpkin, deseeded (i had both available and used up what i had of the butternut squash and half of the pumpkin)
2 celery sticks
3 red peppers, deseeded
75g chorizo
2 medium onions
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
300g potatoes, chopped
1litre vegetable stock
2tsp paprika

this recipe can easily be halved to feed just 3.

firstly, roughly chop the celery, peppers, chorizo, potatoes, squash/pumpkin and onions. slice the garlic and bung it all into your slow cooker with a little olive oil.
measure out 1litre of water and pop it in kettle. crumble the vegetable stock cube in a measuring jug and pour in the water once boiled.
add stock to the slow cooker and sprinkle over the paprika
give it a little stir, cover and leave on low for 8 hours (or high for 4 hours)

if you're feeling a little less lazy, you can shallow fry the vegetables until soft before placing them into the slow cooker. (it's unnecessary to peel the potatoes and squash/pumpkin, so save yourself the arm ache!)

now go and relax, take a shower, read a book, grab a coffee, see friends, then come home and be greeted by a splendid smelling kitchen and steaming slow cooker.

grab a stick blender and cautiously blend what's in the slow cooker until creamy and smooth.

ladle it out into bowls and enjoy on its own or with a nice crusty bread loaf!