Pumpkin Soup

Our pumpkin crop was a big success this year. Brought on early by the long hot summer our first, and biggest, pumpkin was ready for harvesting in August.

Encouraged by our budding gardener, Finlay, this was our second year of growing these giant vegetables from seed, and it was far more successful than the first.

Keen to show Finlay the benefits of growing his own food we decided to turn some of our later crop into soup. We selected two of the smaller pumpkins as they didn’t look as though they would make very impressive lanterns, and set to work.

We combined two recipes to come up with our final concoction:

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 800g pumpkin, peeled and roughly diced
• 700ml vegetable stock
• Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper
• Half a teaspoon cumin powder
• Half a teaspoon mild curry powder
• 150ml double cream
• Fresh bread to accompany

METHOD

1. Gently heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in thick-based saucepan.
2. Once the oil is hot add the onion and garlic, frying them on a gentle heat until the onion softens.
3. Add the diced pumpkin to the pan and cook until it starts to soften, about 10 minutes.
4. Pour the vegetable stock into the pan and season with salt and pepper.
5. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 15 minutes or until the pumpkin is very tender.
6. Add the cumin and curry powder and stir in.
7. Pour the cream into the pan and bring back to the boil.
8. Remove from the heat and purée with a hand blender.
9. For an extra-velvety consistency pour the soup through a fine sieve.
   

I’m pleased to report that everyone enjoyed their autumnal treat even though our Indian summer prevailed and temperatures were unusually high for this time of year.