Wednesday, 14 May 2014

Recipe: Pumpkin soup

I mentioned that I picked my first home grown pumpkin recently. I was a bit apprehensive cutting it open as I thought perhaps I'd picked it a bit early and so it would be dry and inedible. I needn't have worried - that baby was lovely and golden inside, not dry and all, and certainly looked delicious. I split the monster with a friend, and I had absolutely no question in my mind what I was going to make with my half - pumpkin soup of course!

Half the pumpkin

Ingredients:

Pumpkin, cut into chunks (I used half of my kent pumpkin, probably about a kilogram worth)
1 onion, diced
1 large potato, peeled and cut into chunks the same size as the pumpkin
Vegetable Stock – about 4 cups worth. I use Vegeta stock powder to make it up
Salt and pepper to taste
1-2 cloves garlic, crushed
Olive oil

Method:
  1. Start with some olive oil in your soup pot. Add the garlic and onion and saute until fragrant. 
  2. Add your pumpkin, potatoes and stock and simmer until the pumpkin is cooked. You may want to use more or less stock, depending on how thick you want your soup. The potatoes are added as a thickener as the starch in them will also help to thicken it up.
  3. Take the soup off the heat and blend, either using a stick blender, or in batches in a regular blender. 
  4. Return to the stove for a further 10 minutes and season to taste. 

I like to serve this garnished with fresh spring onions, and a side of home made garlic bread. So good!

Serves 4 generously, with leftovers.

Pumpkin soup

Variations:

  • To make it extra fancy, you could add some white wine to deglaze the pot after sautéing the onion and garlic - just saute a little longer to burn off the alcohol.
  • I like to mix it up with some different seasonings. A hint of liquid smoke after blending gives a nice smokey flavour, or some curry powder makes it yummy and aromatic.
  • If you have the oven on anyway, you could roast the vegetables first for a nice caramel flavour, but I'm lazy and wanted this on the table quickly.

What's your favourite soup? 

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