Warm your cockles and calm your wockles with some homemade butternut squash and sweet potato soup.

As the weather chills, recipes in the kitchen heat up from salads and summery stirfrys to soups and stews: after being outside on a wet and wintry day, there are few things as revitalising as some homemade soup.

With bonfire night approaching, it's an ideal time to practice making your most scrumptious soups for an easy and cost-effective way to feed family and friends as they watch the embers fade into the night.

Spicy Butternut and Sweet Potato Soup. Pine cone croutons are optional.

Ingredients

• 2 peeled sweet potatoes
• 1 butternut squash - peeled and deseeded
• olive oil
• 2 onions
• 1 garlic clove thinly sliced
• 2 red chillies - deeseeded and finely chopped
• 1000ml vegetable stock
• creme fraiche

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6
2. Cut the squash and sweet potato into cubes (about 3cm cubes), then toss in a large roasting tin with 1 tbsp of olive oil
3. Roast for 30 mins, turning throughout until golden and soft
4. Melt the butter and a small glug of olive oil in a large saucepan and add the onions, garlic and 3/4 of the chillies
5. Cover the pan and cook on a low heat for approximately 20 minutes, until the onions are soft.
6. Tip the squash, potato, vegetable stock and 5 tbsp creme fraiche into the pan and blend with a hand blender until smooth.
7. Gently re-heat and season.
8. Serve in recyclable paper cups with some French stick, or freshly baked bread - yum!