Spiced corn, lentil & butternut squash chowder

Course: Starter

Warm up with this colourful dish, bursting with flavours of the Caribbean. Taste the perfect blend of spices, mixed with the sweetness of the corn and squash – this recipe will be sure to brighten up your week as those dark evenings roll in.

This dish can be served as a soothing starter or load it up and serve it as a main with freshly baked bread.

You can catch Ainsley cooking live in the Big Kitchen on Sunday 18th June at the BBC Good Food Show Summer 2023!

Serves: 4 as a main, 6 as a starter

Difficulty: Easy

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Ingredients

1 large white onion, finely diced
1 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, grated or finely chopped
½ tsp cayenne pepper
200g yellow split lentils
200g butternut squash, roughly diced into 2cm chunks
700ml vegetable stock
1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
1 Scotch bonnet chilli, halved
2 thyme sprigs
1 x 200g tin sweetcorn, drained
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:

2 tsp red chilli oil, to garnish
a small handful of flat-leaf
parsley, roughly chopped, to garnish

Method

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the onion and garlic and sweat for 7–8 minutes, until softened but not coloured.
Add the cayenne pepper and cook for 1 minute, then add the split lentils, squash, stock, milk, chilli and thyme. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low and cook for 20–25 minutes, until the squash is tender and the lentils are soft, but not mushy.
Add the sweetcorn, season with salt and pepper and bring the soup back to a simmer. To serve, spoon into warm bowls and drizzle over a little chilli oil and a sprinkling of parsley.

Ainsley Harriott’s Caribbean Kitchen, published by Ebury Press, photography Dan Jones.