Cooksister | Food, Travel, Photography

Food, photos & faraway places

  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • About me
    • Contact me
    • Work with me
    • Legal
      • Copyright notice & Disclaimer
      • Disclosure
      • Cookies and Privacy Policy
    • Press and media
    • Cooksister FAQs
  • RECIPES
    • Recipe Index – by course
    • Baking (savoury)
    • Braai/Barbecue
    • Breakfast & brunch
    • Christmas
    • Dessert
    • Drinks
    • Eggs
    • Fish
    • Gluten-free
    • Leftovers
    • Pasta & rice
    • Poultry
    • Pulses
    • Salads
    • Soup
    • South African
    • Starters & light meals
    • Vegan
    • Vegetables
    • Vegetarian
  • RESTAURANTS
    • British Isles restaurants
    • Dubai restaurants
    • France restaurants
    • London restaurants
    • Montenegro restaurants
    • New York restaurants
    • Pop-ups and supperclubs
    • Serbia restaurants
    • Singapore restaurants
    • South Africa restaurants
    • Sweden restaurants
    • Switzerland restaurants
    • USA restaurants
  • TRAVEL
    • All my travel posts
      • Austria
      • Belgium
      • Canada
      • Dubai
      • Cruise ships
      • France
      • Germany
      • Greece
      • Grenada
      • Hong Kong
      • Hotel reviews
      • Italy
      • Israel
      • Jersey
      • Mexico
      • Netherlands
      • Norway
      • Portugal
      • Singapore
      • Ski & snow
      • South Africa
      • Spain
      • Sweden
      • Switzerland
      • UK
      • USA
      • Wales
  • PORTFOLIO
    • Freelance writing portfolio
    • Speaking and teaching
    • Photography portfolio
    • Buy my photos
You are here: Home / Recipes / Gluten-free / Roasted butternut soup – revisited & rephotographed

Roasted butternut soup – revisited & rephotographed

by Jeanne Horak on February 23, 2011 12 Comments in Gluten-free, Soup, Vegetarian

RoastedButternutSoup © J Horak-Druiff 2011

It seems hard to believe now, but when I started this blog, I did not even own a digital camera.  My very first photos were taken using a webcam and involved carrying the food to where the laptop was then then all sorts of acrobatics as Nick held the laptop at an angle where I could see the screen, and I contorted myself trying to manoeuver the camera into a position where it could see the plate, and I could see the laptop screen to check what I was snapping.  Most of the time, just ensuring that the food did not end up on the bedroom floor during this process was a good result in my opinion!

But time passed, the planets revolved, and eventually I purchased my first digital camera (my much-missed Canon Powershot A80) – and the rest is history.  Or a steep learning curve, at any rate. But it still bothers me that I do not have photos for some of my earlier posts.  In particular, one of my perennially popular posts – Paul’s famous butternut soup – went live in August 2004 without a single photograph.  Seeing as I am currently on holiday and not hanging around my computer with lots of time to do extensive posts, I thought this would be as good a time as any to do a couple of posts highlighting old favourite recipes that I have now in fact re-photographed, starting with this fabulous soup.

I am not reproducing the butternut squash soup recipe here in its entirety, but please do go and read the original post – both for the recipe and the story of a dinner party involving a mid-meal delivery of a dining table and an unfortunate meeting of a very large truck and a garden wall. You can thank me later.

More deliciousness for you!

  • Spring greens with GorgonzolaSpring greens with Gorgonzola
  • Saturday Snapshots #90Saturday Snapshots #90
  • For the love of pasta…For the love of pasta…
  • Saturday Snapshots #203Saturday Snapshots #203

Never miss a Cooksister post

If you enjoyed this post, enter your e-mail address here to receive a FREE e-mail update when a new post appears on Cooksister

I love comments almost as much as I love cheese - so if you can't leave me any cheese, please leave me a comment instead!

« Saturday Snapshots #130
Saturday Snapshots #131 »

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Antonia says

    February 23, 2011 at 10:30 am

    Lovely-looking soup. Butternut soup is one of my favourites – just love that velvety texture! Although I do have a digital camera, it is just a small point and shoot one. Still trying to save up for an all-singing-and-dancing version. My main problem is that we’re always too hungry for me to style my food nicely in the evening. Roll on the Summer, when at least there will still be some good natural light!

    Reply
  2. Marisa says

    February 23, 2011 at 10:30 am

    Hahahahahahaha, can just picture you & Nick contorting like crazy to get the food in view of the webcam – must say, that’s one of the more unconventional photography methods I’ve heard of.
    PS: Enjoy your holiday!

    Reply
  3. Kit says

    February 23, 2011 at 11:21 am

    Love your colour combinations here! Way up from a web cam!
    I also never seem to get around to styling my food properly – usually having the whole family waiting to eat it as I hurriedly snap a shot in the fading evening light. I keep promising myself to start cooking earlier, but so far I’ve broken the promise every time. Enjoy your holiday.

    Reply
  4. Helen @ Fuss Free Flavours says

    February 23, 2011 at 11:28 am

    I started blogging once I had the camera, but did not seem to take photos at the beginning.
    I have to revisit some old favourites too.

    Reply
  5. nina says

    February 23, 2011 at 11:44 am

    How we have all improved, thank goodness for that! I cannot wait for winter, soups and stews are my fave!!!

    Reply
  6. Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) says

    February 23, 2011 at 4:26 pm

    Such fun! For the first two years of my blog, I didn’t photograph the food I cooked, so every now and then I like to go back and revisit the dish, and try to photograph it in a way that will make people want to eat it. Your butternut squash soup photo does that, beautifully.

    Reply
  7. Krista says

    February 23, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    What an excellent idea! 🙂 I was pondering such things about my blog just last night and your post today is the kick in the pants I needed. 🙂

    Reply
  8. Mandy - The Complete Cook Book says

    February 24, 2011 at 4:29 am

    I commend your tenacity of taking a photo before you got your camera – I do wish I could have been a fly on the wall to see all the antics.
    🙂 Mandy

    Reply
  9. Firefly says

    February 24, 2011 at 6:01 am

    Butternut soup is my fav. I’m trying to picture you taking photos with your webcam. Hahahaha… Its a very funny picture.

    Reply
  10. Sally - My Custard Pie says

    February 24, 2011 at 6:18 am

    It’s very comforting and amusing to hear about your early days.

    Reply
  11. norma says

    February 25, 2011 at 3:09 pm

    I make this soup all the time. Like the addition of the “pepitas”. I like the story about when you first started…look at you now…all grown up.

    Reply
  12. Erin says

    February 25, 2011 at 3:11 pm

    I love hearing about the acrobatic photography of your early blogging days, it brings up memories of my own. I had grand plans for becoming this wonderful food photographer, but knew absolutely nothing and it always took me a hundred shots to get just one barely passable photo. Phil handles 99% of it now, because my wonderful talent never seemed to emerge. 😉

    Reply
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Never miss a Cooksister post!

Get my latest recipes delivered by e-mail!

Search over 500 recipes

Recently on Cooksister

  • Perfect broccoli and Stilton soup [keto, low carb, GF]
  • Masalchi by Atul Kochhar – Indian street food in Wembley
  • Barbecued salmon with blood oranges and capers
  • Roasted Brussels sprouts with feta, pomegranate and pine nuts [GF, V]
  • Love Yourself healthy meal delivery [Review]
  • Antillean
  • Festive roast lamb with pomegranate glaze
  • Rustic blood orange and pistachio galettes

Archives by month

Archives by category

Popular posts

Peppermint Crisp fridge tart - a South African treat
Oxtail and red wine potjie
Nigella's Bakewell slices & the Big Bakewell Taste-off
Gem squash 101: how to find them, how to grow them, how to eat them!
My big, fat South African potato bake
Roosterkoek - a South African braai essential

Featured on

Also available on

Do you enjoy free art installations? Then you need Do you enjoy free art installations? Then you need to get down to @canarywharflondon between now and Saturday 28 Jan to catch the free Winter Lights 2023 event, back for the seventh year.

My favourites include @lukejerramartist ‘s Floating Earth; Tom Lambert’s Out of the Dark; Fluorescent Firs; Toroid by This is Loop; and the surreal and mesmerising Anima by MEATS - a tunnel filled with hundreds of thin optical fibre lights that change colour and move in the breeze 😍 

Have you been to Winter Lights? What was your favourite?
“When we look down at the Earth from space, we s “When we look down at the Earth from space, we see this amazing, indescribably beautiful planet. It looks like a living, breathing organism. But it also, at the same time, looks extremely fragile.” - International Space Station astronaut Ron Garamond

To experience the “overview effect” (a phenomenon experienced by astronauts viewing the earth from space), head down to Canary Wharf in the London docklands this week where you can see @lukejerramartist ‘s beautiful Floating Earth installation as part of the Winter Lights event. 

This giant 10m diameter installation is created using high resolution NASA images to create a floating scale model of the Earth, lit from within so that it glows from its current home on the Middle Dock, surrounded by the headquarters of international banking and finance corporations.

The artist hopes that viewed in this context, the installation will make visitors and the bankers working in surrounding buildings question how their money in savings and pensions is invested, and whether investments can be greener.

Aside from being a thought provoking piece, it is also mesmerising and surreally beautiful, so make sure you visit the free Winter Lights event before ends on Saturday 28 Jan.
Happy lunar new year! [Invited] To celebrate the Happy lunar new year! 

[Invited] To celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Rabbit, why not head over to @mamachensdumplings currently doing a residence at the @thegantrylondon in #stratford where you can feast on prawn & chive dumplings; pork, Chinese cabbage and shiitake mushroom dumplings; pork & prawn wontons with Mama Chen’s chilli oil; vegetable dumplings; smacked cucumber salad; and spicy noodles coated in garlic and Szechuan pepper oil.

And afterwards, make sure you head up to the @unionsocialoc bar for a cocktail - I loved the Moreish Fashion with bourbon, PX sherry, chestnuts and mandarin orange bitters!
Got leftover Stilton (or any blue cheese) from Chr Got leftover Stilton (or any blue cheese) from Christmas? Turn it into this super simple and super indulgent broccoli and Stilton soup! So easy to make and soooo delicious to eat - and it is low carb and GF. What more could you want?! Click the link in my bio for the full recipe. What’s your favourite soup?
CELEBRATE. So the fireworks are over, the champag CELEBRATE.

So the fireworks are over, the champagne is finished and the leftovers are all eaten. We are one week into 2023 and I have had some time to think about what my intent is for the year. 

In 2022 my brother had a life saving kidney transplant. Since the operation, he has had a Peanuts cartoon as his WhatsApp profile pic, where Charlie Brown and Snoopy are sitting on a pier talking. Charlie says “Some day, we all die Snoopy.” And Snoopy replies: “Yes - but every other day, we will live.”

Waking up in the morning is a gift, every day, and it is so easy to forget this. The last few years have been difficult for so many people and the coming year promises its own challenges. But every day that we don’t die is a day to live, to celebrate life in some small way.

So my intention in 2023 is to celebrate. Celebrate our achievements however small. Celebrate our friends and family. Celebrate small things. Celebrate life.

Did you make any resolutions or goals for 2023? I would love to hear them in the comments! Wishing you all the very best for 2023 🥂
Happy new year, everyone! Here are some scenes fro Happy new year, everyone! Here are some scenes from last night with friends in Deptford. My deconstructed avocado ritz; @twinkleparkstephen ‘s bobitie; Giles’ Ottolenghi tomato salad; and Jean’s clementine trifle - and the London night sky ablaze with fireworks!  How did you spend your evening? 🥂🎇🎆
Merry Christmas to all those celebrating - I hope Merry Christmas to all those celebrating - I hope your day was merry and bright, filled with family, friends and love 🎄🥂. Mine was spent alone at home - my choice and the result of a combination of Covid (not mine!) and rail strikes 🤦‍♀️ but very relaxing and indulgent!
Looking for a stylish and easy Christmas starter y Looking for a stylish and easy Christmas starter you can make ahead? Look no further than my individual smoked salmon terrine! Hot smoked salmon, cream cheese and chives wrapped in cold smoked salmon in a ramekin. Still one of the most popular Christmas recipes in my blog, it looks cheffy but is soooo simple to make - and will save you time and effort on the day! Get the recipe by clicking on the link in my bio.

How is your Christmas meal prep going? Are you entertaining at home or going to friends or family? 🎄🥂🎄🥂🎄
Looking for a brilliant biryani near Marble Arch? Looking for a brilliant biryani near Marble Arch? I recently enjoyed a feast at Biryani Kebab Chai @bkc.restaurant on Edgeware Road, including wonderful sweet, spicy and crunchy papri chaat; smoky burrah lamb kebab; galouti lamb patties; juicy chaap chicken thigh kebab; spicy chapli chicken patties; and the surprising vegetarian dahi ke patties made of yoghurt! We also tried the chicken and soya biryanis, both with incredibly fluffy and delicately spiced rice. You can get their biryanis as a 1kg takeaway, served in a beautiful branded clay pot that serves 3-4 people, for about £30. Bargain! We also took home a sample of their desserts, including a fragrant and delicious kheer rice pudding. If you are in the Marble Arch area, get yourself to BKC!  #invited #bkcrestaurants
Load More... Follow me on Instagram

Follow Jeanne Horak-Druiff's board Recipes by Cooksister on Pinterest.

Cooksister

The South African Food and Wine Blog Directory

The South African Food and Wine Blog Directory

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Jeanne Horak is a freelance food and travel writer; recipe developer and photographer. South African by birth and Londoner by choice, Jeanne has been writing about food and travel on Cooksister since 2004. She is a popular speaker on food photography and writing has also contributed articles, recipes and photos to a number of online and print publications. Jeanne has also worked with a number of destination marketers to promote their city or region. Please get in touch to work with her Read More…

Latest Recipes

Bowls of broccoli and Stilton soup
Salmon with blood oranges dill and capers
Brussels sprouts with feta and pomegranate
Roast lamb with pomegranate glaze
Blood orange & pistachio galettes
Cauliflower topped steak with melted cheese
Plate of potted smoked salmon with slaw and a glass of champagne
bowls of pistachio pomegranate bircher muesli

SITEMAP

Home

Contact

About me

Recipe Index

Restaurant Index

Copyright & Disclaimer

Cookies & privacy policy




blog counter

© 2004 - 2023 · Jeanne Horak unless otherwise stated - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. You may not reproduce any text, excerpts or images without my prior permission. Site by RTW Labs

Copyright © 2023 · Cooksister on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Cooksister cookie consent
We use cookies to ensure you receive the best experience on our site. If you continue to use this site, you are agreeing to our terms and conditions. Accept
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT