What is better in winter than a bowl of cheering-up soup – and a tasty butternut and orange soup with just a hint of curry and ginger presses all the right buttons.

Our local oranges taste really great and they brim with lots of potent vitamins to fight off those nasty sniffles. The lovely citrus freshness adds a lovely flavour to the butternut. Add a pinch of curry, turmeric and grated fresh ginger and you have a real winner.

What I like about this soup is that you can put it all together and be ready to serve in the time it takes to sip a glass or two of wine and the ingredients are so simple you can source it within minutes on a short pop-in at your local supermarket on your way home from work.

To serve four portions of the butternut, orange and ginger soup you need:

Ingredients

1 large butter nut, peeled and cubed

1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed

Juice of two freshly squeezed oranges

1 teaspoon curry powder

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon finely grated ginger

2 teaspoons clear honey

600ml chicken or vegetable stock

½ cup finely chopped fresh coriander leaf

Method

Heat the stock and add the butternut and sweet potato and simmer for 10 minutes then add the turmeric, ginger and curry powder and continue simmering until soft.

Remove from heat, pour into a processor and blitz until creamy.

Return the soup to the pot and heat through.

Add the orange juice and the honey.

Season to taste.

Just before serving sprinkle with finely chopped coriander leaf.