Considering the distinct lack of any summer worth talking about this year, I was surprised when autumn’s arrival came as such a shock to the system. You would think I would have been prepared for it, but the gale force winds and ‘I dare you to step outside’ torrential rain, made the dreary summer months seem like one long blissful evening on the terrace. I found the drawing in of the evenings the most difficult thing to deal with, and now with the clocks back one hour it feels like midnight at 4pm! <br /> <br />All that being said we are now in November, so we might as well embrace it, and with the glut of gorgeous autumnal produce in full swing, there is lots to enjoy. I got my hands on my first onion squash of the season a few weeks back – I had to practically pole vault the fruit stand to get to it though, as a very determined looking ‘yummy mummy’ could be seen fast approaching from the other side (she obviously got the celeb’ chef memo that onion squash, aka red kuri or hokkaido, is the vegetable to cook with this season!). The pole vault was worth it though for the glorious dinner I made with the onion squash, paired with earthy puy lentils and a rosemary and chili salmoriglio, it was just perfect. (Check it out on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/theGFgourmet) <br /> <br />And so to another squash then for this soup, the butternut variety, probably the most widely known and widely available and fortunately very tasty too. It seems to be a match made in heaven with cinnamon, so I fired a few quills in to the base, but you could of course use the ground variety. The chili gives it a gentle background heat; we are not trying to blow anyone’s brains out here, so even the faint hearted should be well able to tolerate it. <br /> <br />So, if like me you have been fighting off the drawing in of the evenings, then nestle in for the night with this velvet soup and I can guarantee you will have fully reconciled yourself to winters chilly arrival by the time you have finished your first bowl. In fact you may even find yourself rather looking forward to it!

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