Squash soup sagey chestnut dumplings recipe

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of spring onions
• A few sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 1 fresh red chilli
• 1 chicken stock cube
• Olive oil
• 1 medium butternut squash (neck end only)
• 3 carrots
• 1 × 400 g tin of chickpeas

• 100 g vac-packed chestnuts
• 100 g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
• 1 chicken stock cube
• 8 rashers of smoked pancetta
• 10 fresh sage leaves
• 1 whole nutmeg, for grating
• Optional: 30 g Cheddar cheese

1. Trim the spring onions and blitz in the processor with the rosemary.leaves, chilli and stock cube until fine, then put into the casserole pan with 1 tablespoon of oil. Cut the neck off the squash, trimming away the stalky end, then carefully quarter (don’t peel, and keep the seed end for another day). Blitz the squash in the processor with the trimmed carrots until finely chopped. Add to the casserole pan with the chickpeas, their water, and 1 litre of boiling water. Cover with the lid and cook on high. Refill and boil the kettle.
2. Blitz the chestnuts, flour, stock cube and a pinch of pepper in the processor. Start adding 100 ml of cold water, a splash at a time, until it just comes together as a ball of firm dough. Split the dough in half and roll each piece into a sausage shape on a flour-dusted surface, then cut into 2 cm chunks. Fill the large pan with boiling water, add the dumplings, cover with the lid and simmer on a medium heat for 6 minutes, or until fluffy.
3. Blitz the soup with the stick blender until lovely and smooth, then season to taste and simmer until ready to serve. Put the pancetta into a deep roasting tray on a high heat with 1 tablespoon of oil. When it starts to crisp up, add the sage leaves. Scoop out the fluffy dumplings with a slotted spoon, toss in the tray of crispy pancetta and sage, then finely grate over half the nutmeg and serve with a grating of Cheddar, if you like.