Spiced winter vegetable soup

Peel and chop the potato, carrots & butternut squash and add them to the chopped celery and leeks. Finely chop the onions, ginger and garlic and place in a large bowl. Heat a large saucepan with the butter and add in the onions, garlic and ginger and sweat them off for 23 minutes until just softened and the add in all of the vegetables together with the thyme sprigs. Allow them to cook very gently (and without colour) for 810 minutes or until the smaller of the vegetables are glazed off. Next add in the cream, chilli flakes and approximately 2/3 of the stock and bring the mixture to a slow boil and then reduce the heat and simmer for an additional 1520 minutes or until all of the vegetables have softened down completely. Using a hand blitzer, blitz the soup until it is nice and smooth. Return to the heat and bring back to a very gentle boil If you would like a thinner soup, now would be the best time to add some additional stock to thin it down. Correct the seasoning at this stage also. Serve immediately.