Vegetable and Feta Soup
A delicious feel good soup made with natural ingredients. This warm and heath soup is great for lunches, dinners and weekly meal prep. A batch of this is great to pre-portion up and store in the freezer for meals in the the coming week or even in a few months. Home cooked soup is always better than highly processed shop-bought soups which often destroys much of the natural vitamins and nutrients during the preparation and canning process. This soup however, is healthy for the whole family and can be made in advance and stored for convenient future meals.
Equipment
- Air fryer - This can be used as a replacement for a traditional oven. It it more efficient at cooking at higher temperatures and will create nice crispy roasted vegetables which locks in the juices and flavours. Using an air fryer will also reduce the cooking time required.
- Soup pot - This can be any large pot capable of holding around 3 litres. This is more than the amount of soup being made but it give a bit of room at the top of the pan to stop boiling over or spillages.
- Blender - A hand blender is best but any blender you already have will do the trick
Ingredients
- 1 Butternut squash Butternut squash 1 butternut squash needed (weight will depend on the size of the individual vegetable)
- 4 Tomatoes Vine tomatoes
- 1 Onion White onion
- 1/2 Garlic ball Cloves of garlic Approx 6-8 cloves
- 1 Pepper Red bell pepper
- 3 Carrots Orange carrots
- 300 g Feta cheese A block of feta works best for this recipe
- 10 ml Olive oil Enough to coat the vegetables and cover the garlic. Alternative oils can be used if desired
- 10 g Seasonings Salt, pepper, time, rosemary, oregano, and any other desired herbs
- 2 Cubes Stock cubes This can be vegetable stock or meat stock depending on personal preference
Instructions
- Wash and roughly chop all of the vegetables. Chunks/cubes about an inch by and inch will do the trick and the onion is best sliced.
- On a tray or bowl cover the vegetable is a generous portion of olive oil (other oils will work just as well here) and all the herbs, salt and pepper. This seasoning is to your own taste so feel free to add in more or less as desired.
- Roast the vegetables (excluding garlic - see next step for instructions for garlic) in an air fryer or oven for 20-30 minutes. Cook the vegetables until they turn a deep brown colour - it is okay if some of the smaller chunks char and blacken as this will actually add more flavour to the soup - just try not to over do it! Also make sure to give the vegetables a toss and a jiggle during the cooking process to move them around and make sure the are all cooking evenly.
- Chopping the garlic into halves place in an overproof glass or ceramic bowl and add oil to cover the garlic. Roast this in the air fryer for 20 minutes, taking great care when removing at the end.
- Also bake the feta in the air fryer for approximately 10-20 minutes until it starts to brown off.
- Add the roasted vegetables, garlic with oil, and feta cheese to a large pot with approximately 1 litre of boiling water and the chosen stock. More can be added later is necessary, but the water should at lease completely cover the vegetables.
- Bring the pot to the boil then reduce the temperature to a simmer and leave at this heat for 30 minutes.
- Next the pot can be removed from the heat and the consistency can be blended down until and the desired texture. This is usually until smooth, but can be left with larger chunks for a more heartily soup texture.
- *Add more water as necessary while blending to get to your desired consistency, being careful to only add small amounts at a time.
- Serve with some home made bread and enjoy while hot!
- With any remaining soup, allow it to cool completely then portion it up into bags or tubs and store in the freezer for future meals.
