ROASTED PUMPKIN SOUP RECIPE OF AWESOME, BY ME.

[hope]

Serves 4 generously.


EQUIPMENT:

- Frying pan
- Large saucepan
- Oven and baking tray
- Food processor or blender


INGREDIENTS:

- Quarter of a medium-sized pumpkin, or half a medium-sized butternut squash
- 1 brown onion
- 1 sweet potato OR 2 medium sized potatoes
- ~1/2 cup red lentils
- ~5 cups of stock (vege or chicken)
- Fresh or pre-minced garlic and ginger
- Spices - curry powder, cumin, chinese spice mix
- Olive oil


FOR GARNISH:

- 1/2 a red onion
- A few rashers of bacon


INSTRUCTIONS:

First, roast your pumpkin well before you start cooking the soup proper. A day or two before is fine. To roast, put the pumpkin on a baking tray and preheat your oven to about 170°C. If you're just roasting part of the pumpkin, rub olive oil and a bit of honey and some spice - I use cinnamon - onto the exposed flesh before putting it in. Cook for at least an hour, poking it with a knife to see if it's ready. Take it out when it's soft, and scoop all the flesh away from the skin.

AND NOW FOR THE SOUP!

1. Heat olive oil in the saucepan and when it's hot enough (a bit of onion should sizzle a bit when you toss it in), put in your onion, diced. Stir/saute for a few minutes.


2. When onion is translucent, put in all your spices - about 2 cloves or a teaspoon of garlic, teaspoon of ginger, and about half a teaspoon each of cumin, curry powder, and chinese spice powder. Stir it into the onion, sauteing for a minute or two.


3. Add your diced potato/sweet potato to the pan and stir/saute for several minutes.


4. Pour in 4 cups of stock (hot works well) and stir to lift up any spices/juices that have stuck to the bottom of the pan.


5. Bring to the boil then add your half-cup of red lentils.


6. Simmer for a while, until the potato is starting to get soft. Then add the pumpkin (it won't have to cook as long as it's all softened from being roasted). You may need to add more stock; cover the solid contents by about an inch of liquid. Continue to simmer on a reasonably high heat.


7. When the potato (and any bits of the pumpkin that had remained solid) is soft, turn off the heat and use the food processor to blend up the soup into a thick, creamy consistency. If it's too thick, add a bit more hot stock during the blending process. Season with a bit of pepper, and salt if you're not planning to use the garnish.

GARNISH!

1. Dice your bacon and slice your onion into rings.


2. Heat up plenty of oil in a frying pan and add the bacon. Saute it on a high heat until it's going pink and hard.


3. Add the onion and continue to saute, stirring frequently so that nothing sticks to the pan and gets burnt. Continue until the bacon is crispy and onion soft and caramelised.

Either stir garnish into whole soup mixture or 'sprinkle' it on the top of each serve. Also good with fresh parsley!

Comments

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

Am wondering if this is similar to the recipe used_songs was telling me I must make--hers I think was pumpkin tortilla. I made a butternut soup not long ago that took forever to make--WAY too long. This is far simpler! Probably tastes better too--after all that trouble I went to, I was just meh about the soup I made. Tasted like baby food! LOL.

[hope]

Hahah! Well, I have to say that using roast pumpkin makes a massive difference, flavour-wise, as does not being scared of the spices. It's the opposite of baby food :D

[paragraphs.livejournal.com]

Hard to find pumpkin though, all of a sudden. Season is over. I have canned pumpkin and I doubt that would be as good.

Used to love baby sweet potatoes... LOL. When my son was a baby he loved those so much. Now he wont' touch the real thing. LOL.

[hope]

You can't even get canned pumpkin over here! Pumpkin is around pretty much all year, too :D

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

Butternut squash is still in my store, and works interchangeably with pumpkin, in my experience. In fact, the canned 'pumpkin' one buys is usually butternut squash, at least in part!

[hope]

We tend to just call it "butternut pumpkin", here!

[weaverandom.livejournal.com]

Oooh, this looks pretty excellent! I usually just boil my pumpkin while making the soup, but ooooh, now I'm imagining the taste of delicious roasted pumpkin combined with delicious pumpkin soup and DROOLING.

YES PLEASE. YES YES YES A LOT PLEASE.

[hope]

I never even used to like pumpkin! And roasting it is SO EASY, srsly. Sometimes I just buy a whole pumpkin and roast the whole thing then make all kinds of pumpkin recipes with the resulting mush. Any US recipe that calls for "canned pumpkin"? Use roasted pumpkin mash. SO GOOD.

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

I almost never use canned pumpkin anymore, not even for pie at Thanksgiving.

[semplice.livejournal.com]

I am terribly bad at cooking but still tempted to try this.

[hope]

It is super-easy! And the roasted flavour is just effortless, srsly.

[linaelyn.livejournal.com]

*memories*

You rock, 'tater.

[hope]

:D Enjoy! <3

[wenchpixie]

*mems* especially as heating is currently buggered and it's -2. NEED WARMING OM NOM NOM.

[hope]

It is definitely extraordinarily hearty, without being overwhelmingly spicy at all.

*wraps you in blankies* I hope your heating stops being buggered soon!