Tiece's Butternut Squash and Coconut Soup
Hi everyone. Sincerely hope yr all holding up ok.
Short newsletter this week. It’s hard to write right now for obvious reasons, and I could rant but I don’t have the experience or the words to, so I won’t say much. Show up to protests. Lean into yr discomfort. If yr in Oxford, follow and support the Rhodes Must Fall campaign, become a patron of Onyx magazine and fight to challenge the culture of racism and ignorance ingrained in the city - gown and town. Donate to black business, artists, musicians, creatives, writers and campaigns - EVERYDAY, not just when there’s a body on the news or it’s fashionable to be angry. All those resources, links and reading lists you’ve saved off instagram? Make sure you make a plan to sort through them and act on them. Don’t forget about them. Black Lives Matter Everyday.
As for me, I have a lot of work to do. Keeping this to the point, I know that CHEWn has been overly white in its perspective so far, which isn’t good enough. I’m going to budget for some paid features by black writers, cooks and music makers for future issues as a start to correct this. Watch this space.
For now, some comfort. And, well, if you ask me, soup is the ultimate comfort food. Slipping a warm bowl into the hands of a loved one at this time is an unparalleled act of care. This is a recipe for butternut squash and coconut soup by London-Oxford-Oxford-London songwriter, producer, Inner Peace collective member, indoor tent owner and recent Radio 1 Big Weekender Tiece. Her tape WMN is a staple on the kitchen tape player over here - syrupy soul drizzled around gorgeously slurred and crackled beats. We did an interview over zoom recently for a future CHEWn and it’s so great. We mostly talked about Falmouth (our uni town and home of the BEST CHIPS ON THE PLANET FULL STOP DON’T EVEN TRY TO ARGUE WITH ME), but we also covered waitressing, seasoning, producing and her forthcoming album which you can snap the Intro teaser for NOW (below). It’ll be challenge for me to capture in writing the boundless enthusiasm with which she talks about food, cooking and music, and all the leads between it that came up, but I’m hella looking forward to it.
Anyway yes soup (recipe as sent to me over Instagram messenger). Made this the other day. Can confirm it does the trick:
1 butternut squash, chilli flakes, 2 cans of coconut milk, 1 onion and 3 garlic cloves.
Peel and chop the squash and the onion and garlic. Fry the onion and garlic in olive olu until soft, remove from the pan am plate on the side.
Put the chopped squash into the pot with a bit
More olive oil and stir until the edges are browned, add the onion and garlic to the mix and stir in
Add salt and pepper for flavour
Sprinkle in the chillies and stir
Then add water to the pot, make sure there's an inch or so or water above the contents of the pot
Sprinkle in a quarter of a tea spoon on turmeric and a tea spoon of honey
Put in a low heat with it partially covered for an hour or so
Or until the squash comes apart and is very soft
Stir the contents of the pot do they become like a brown sludge and add the first tin of coconut milk. If the squash is tender enough you
May not have to even use a hand bless er
Hand blender even haha!!
Taste it, see what it needs
If it's too spicy add another teaspoon of honey and use a bit of water
If it needs salt or pepper add as you like
Add the final tin of coconut milk and if it needs give it a blend and voila! Soup
You can also use the seeds from the squash by putting them on a baking tray as they are and leave them under the grill to become crispy, add to the soup for garnish
Also if you swap the honey for brown sugar it's puuuure vegan 😂
Check out Tiece’s EP WMN here (tapes and CDs available!), as well as the Intro teaser from her new album due later this year.