Butternut, Coconut & Apple Soup
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Butternut Squash, Coconut & Apple Soup Recipe

Recipe taken from Seasonal Soups by Fraser Reid

As the cold weather kicks in here in Scotland, we reflect on one of our very best-selling books Seasonal Soups by the delightful and charismatic Fraser Reid. 

Picture of Fraser with fruit tree

Fraser is very inspiring character who gave up his previous office job to open a fruit and veg store in our hometown of Dundee cunningly named Fraser’s Fruit & Veg.

Shop front Fraser's Fruit & Veg

His book Seasonal Soups was inspired by the popular soup packs he sells in the shop to customers based around the seasonal goods available and as a way of encouraging people to try out different vegetables and experiment with new flavours.

Seasonal Soups 3rd Edition Cover

Over three editions this wee gem of a cookbook has grown into a phenomenon and we are so happy to have been a part of Fraser’s exciting journey.

Now back to the soup. To celebrate this journey and the joy it has brought to so many, we thought we would share one of our favourite winter warmers from his collection that will keep you busy in the kitchen and cosy at home, while tickling those tastebuds – Butternut Squash, Coconut & Apple.

Now over to Fraser and as usual the beauty is in the simplicity of the recipe and a few choice ingredients.

Butternut Squash, Coconut & Apple Soup

The apple in this soup acts as a sweetener and can easily be replaced by using a pear, peach or apricot.

Serves 4

1 tablespoon olive oil or butter

1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped

1 teaspoon garam masala

1 butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and diced

1 apple, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

2 stock cubes

1.5 tablespoons creamed coconut

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat a pot on a medium-low heat and add the oil or butter. Fry the onion, carrot and garam masala for 5–10 minutes.

Add the squash and apple and continue to cook for 5 minutes.

Pour in 1.2 litres of boiling water, and add the stock cubes and the creamed coconut, stirring to make sure it dissolves. 

Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Blend the soup until completely smooth, and then season to taste.

Thank you Fraser for another very tasty and heartening soup to keep us warm.

You can buy Seasonal Soups direct from us with free postage right here

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Digital Soup

soupPlease excuse the recent radio silence, but we’ve been very busy. Some great new projects are bubbling under, our mailbox is full of recipes from Greenwich Market (in English, Mandarin and Italian), and we’ve been working away on our first eBook – a digital edition of Fraser’s Seasonal Soups.

We’ve grappled with digitising our books before but have always shied away from it for two reasons – firstly, from an old-fashioned love of having print cookbooks to get dirty in the kitchen, and secondly (and more importantly) because of the design limitations of epub formats – especially for hand illustrated projects. We needed to get our heads around it though, and the publication of Fraser’s Seasonal Soups last year was a good opportunity to start thinking how we’d like an eBook to look and feel. Thanks to the talents of Stuart Cockburn at I Love Grids, we now have a version that captures the hand-drawn feel of the print book while having the convenience and functionality of an eBook.

Fraser’s Seasonal Soups by Fraser Reid is available for kindle on Amazon right here, and will be on sale in our own shop and on other platforms very soon. Please do take a look and let us know what you think, and what you prefer to cook from – print or digital? Print cookbooks, more than any other genre of books, have held their own in the digital revolution, but as more and more people use the internet to find things to cook, the notion of using your kindle or iPad or laptop in the kitchen is becoming the norm. And anything that gets people cooking is ok by us.

To whet your appetite and in recognition of the fact that soup is not just for the winter months, here’s a seasonal March recipe for you from the soup genius himself.

Smoky Sweet Potato & Butter Bean

Serves 4

Hands down this is one of my favourite soup recipes and it always goes down well with customers. The creamy butter beans are the perfect balance for the smoky paprika and sweetness of the potatoes.

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil or butter
  • 1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 sweet potato, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 or 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 x 400g tin butter beans, drained
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 2 stock cubes
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Heat a pot on a medium heat and add the oil or butter. Fry the onion and garlic for 5–10 minutes until they soften slightly.

Add the sweet potato, carrots, drained butter beans and smoked paprika to the pot, mixing everything together.

Pour in 1.2 litres of boiling water, crumble in the stock cubes, and then bring it all to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 20 minutes.

Blend the soup and season to taste.

Buy Fraser’s Seasonal Soups by Fraser Reid print edition here or as a kindle book here.