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Squash and Apple Soup

Claire Wright

Effort:
Complexity:
Cost:
In season now

Serves: 6-8

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

1 large butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and roughly chopped

2 eating apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

1 onion or 3 sticks celery, roughly chopped

2 tsp ground nutmeg (allspice, cumin, turmeric or curry powder all work well here, too)

1 tin coconut milk (400ml) + 1 tin of water or stock

salt & pepper

optional, to serve: more coconut milk or single cream, finely chopped fresh herbs like rosemary, mint, coriander or parsley

Veg Portions / Serving: 1

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Recipe created for Veg Power by Claire Wright. Food photography by Claire Wright | addsomeveg.com

Claire Wright from addsomeveg.com shares 3 simple ways to prepare squash that the whole family will enjoy.

This squash and apple soup is really sweet and silky smooth – an easy way to feed it to kids and adults alike. Squash is a vegetable my daughter really doesn’t enjoy roasted, but serve her a bowl of this soup and she will put it away in minutes and ask for more!

Method:

Place the squash pieces, apple, celery or onion and nutmeg in a large saucepan. Pour in the coconut milk and refill the coconut milk tin with water or stock, pouring it in to just cover the veg (you can always add more after blitzing to thin it out, so best to go with too little liquid now than too much). Bring to the boil, then simmer and cover with a lid, leaving to bubble away for about 20 mins, or until the veg is soft (try poking a piece of squash with a sharp knife – if it feels soft, it’s ready). Blitz with a hand held blender or carefully blend in a food processor or blender in batches. Serve hot with a little coconut milk or single cream stirred in and fresh herbs scattered over, if you like.

Engaging Kids

Engaging Kids

Kids who engage regularly with veg through veg-themed activities, such as arts and crafts, sensory experiences, growing and cooking are shown to be more likely to eat the veg they engage with. Encouraging kids to engage and play with veg is the handy first step to them developing a good relationship with veg and life-long healthy eating.

Kids in the kitchen

Kids in the kitchen

Prep the veg and fruit, then get the kids to chuck it all in the saucepan for you and add the spices and coconut milk. Let them fill the tin back up and pour it in. When the soup is ready, show them how to carefully blitz it with the hand blender (watch out, the hot soup can spurt so it’s sometimes best to do this when it’s cooled down). Let them choose what they want to add to theirs, stir in the coconut milk or cream, and chop the herbs with scissors over their bowl.

Activities

Activities

While getting kids to interact with veggies for real and using their senses to explore them is best, encouraging hands off activities like arts & crafts, puzzles & games or at-home science experiments can be a great start, particularly for those who are fussier eaters or struggle with anything too sensory. Use these veg-themed activities as a stepping stone to interacting with the veg themselves. We have loads of crafty downloads here, puzzles here, and quirky science with veg here.

Sensory

Sensory

Once you feel your child is ready to engage a little more, you can show them how to explore the veg you have on hand with their senses, coming up with playful silly descriptions of how a veg smells, feels, looks, sounds and perhaps even tastes. Find ideas, videos and some simple sensory education session ideas to get you started here.

Serving

Serving

The moments before food is offered can be a perfect opportunity for engagement that can help make it more likely a child will eat it! Giving children a sense of ownership in the meal can make a big difference to their feelings going into it and the pride they take in it. You know your child best, but if you aren’t sure where to start, we have some fun and simple ideas for easy roles you can give them in the serving process over here.

Claire Wright

Editor: After leaving Exeter University with a degree in English Literature, Claire worked in various fields ranging from youth work and charities to publishing, before starting up a food-focused website when her first child was born. After being asked to project manage the publication of Veg Power's Crowdfunder book, Claire came on board as a fully-fledged team member in 2018 to take on the role of Communications Manager, then Editor, looking after Veg Power's website, content, recipes and social media platforms.

addsomeveg.com/

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