Squash and Spelt Soup

We use spelt (a species of wheat) as an occasional alternative to rice or barley. It's quite sweet. It takes a bit of cooking - about 40 minutes will do. We cook it separately and put it in with the squash soup: we used kabocha squash (Johnny's Seeds Scarlet Sunshine), potato, carrot, onion, salt, a bit of chili powder and a generous amount of chopped ginger. Cook the squash and carrot for 15 minutes before you add the other ingredients, then simmer another 20 minutes or more.

This was a really fine sweet and spicy soup if I do say so myself, and quite simple - though peeling the squash is a bit of a challenge. For dessert, squash pie.