Mary Berry says butternut squash soup is more 'intensely' flavourful with 1 step

Winter is looming large, the nights are drawing in and as temperatures drop there can be fewer hearty and warming dishes better than a tasty winter soup.

While a tin of supermarket soup may suffice for some, the flavours aren't always that exciting. So if you're a bit bored of the usual array of tomato, chicken or mushroom soups, why not try this more adventurous butternut squash soup recipe from none other than The Great British Bake Off's Mary Berry. The former Bake Off judge's easy recipe takes less than an hour to prepare and is packed full of flavour, despite being dairy free.

Butternut squash has quite a sweet and mild taste so Mary has shared a top tip for making the soup much more flavourful with one simple step. According to the top chef and baker, roasting the squash - along with the other vegetables - is what really brings out the flavour and will make the soup taste lovely and rich.

The main ingredients you'll need to make the soup are a peeled and seeded butternut squash, a large onion, two medium carrots, a red pepper and four tablespoons of olive oil.

Simply chop the ingredients into small cubes and place them into a resealable freezer bag, along with the oil, and give it a good shake before tipping everything out into a roasting tin to cook for around 45 minutes at 180C fan.

Explaining the process in a YouTube video, Mary said: "Cut into cubes. Then along with the chopped red pepper, a large chopped onion and a couple of carrots, pop it into a polyethylene bag with some olive oil. So take that and just shake it all about.

"Tip it all into the tin, season with pepper and salt, and cook at 180C fan for 45 minutes. Roasting the vegetables first intensifies the flavour and I think gives it a bit of a kick."

Mary then suggests adding some peeled and chopped ginger to the mix, along with one tablespoon of clear honey to bring a mix of sweetness and warmth to the dish.

Mary adds: "What makes this soup really special is topping the veg with some chopped ginger and runny honey. This just adds sweetness to it and gives a bit of a glaze too. Roast for a further five minutes until all your veg are nice and soft.."

Once cooked, add your vegetables to a saucepan and add in one and a half litres of vegetable or chicken stock and bring this to the boil.

Allow the mix to bubble away for around 10 minutes and then use a hand blender to blend it until it's lovely and smooth. If the mixture is too thick, simply add a little more stock. Return the pan to the heat to warm it through and serve with a slice of crusty bread.