This soup is a beauty if I can say so myself. I have been making pumpkin soup since I was at Uni but back then, probably because I couldn’t be bothered, I would cook or steam the pumpkin in vegetable stock and then put it through a mixer. This is a perfectly fine and fast way of making pumpkin soup, but it leaves out the potential for a deeper flavour. This recipe here requires a little bit more time, but because we are using the oven, other things can be done simultaneously meaning we could essentially save a little time by double tasking. Yes? For this soup I used Golden Nugget and I suggest that you choose whichever pumpkin is in season, ripe and look rich in colour, as this will provide you with the best taste.
Pumpkin is really high in vitamin A, vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin that is beneficial for our vital organs and immune system, and is best eaten with other fats. Having said that, it is questionable how much of vitamin A is left in this pumpkin soup after its cooking processes. Regardless, pumpkin soup is soothing for our digestive system and it is very grounding and nurturing to our sacral and root chakra.
- 1.5 kg organic pumpkin, peeled, seeded and cut into large wedges (depending on shape of pumpkin but about 4cm wide and 15cm long)
- 1 whole garlic bulb
- 1 brown onion
- 1/4 tsp sweet paprika powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2-3 cups filtered water
- 4 generous pinches of fine sea salt
- Baby water cress or other finely chopped herbs that you like
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
- Peel and seed the pumpkin and cut it into large wedges of similar size.
- Line a large enough baking tray to fit the pumpkin wedges with baking paper.
- Drizzle 2 tbsp of olive oil and massage the oil onto the pumpkin wedges, ensuring they are all coated with oil.
- Grab some aluminium free alfoil and wrap the whole garlic bulb in it. If you do not have aluminium free alfoil, you can wrap some baking paper around the garlic bulb and then alfoil over that.
- Place the garlic and pumpkin on the tray and put it in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Whilst the pumpkin is in the oven, finely chop the onion and measure up the spices, salt and water, and set aside.
- When the timer for 20 minutes has gone off, gently turn pumpkin wedges around and set the timer for another 20 minutes. When the second alarm goes, turn the oven off but leave the pumpkin wedges in there for another 20 minutes or so, ensuring that they have cooked through properly first.
- Remove the pumpkin from the oven and unwrap and break open the garlic bulb.
- Warm up 1 tbsp of olive oil in a medium sized and thickly bottomed pot and saute the onion until it is golden, make sure it does not get burnt at all.
- Add the sweet paprika and cumin powder and stir, once the heat has released the aroma of the spices add the pumpkin wedges and stir/mash. Add sea salt and stir again before adding water.
- Whilst waiting for the water to come to a boil, grab the individual garlic cloves and squeeze them from one end so the garlic meat comes out like toothpaste into the soup, this should leave you with only the shell of the skin in between your fingers. Squeeze out the meat of the entire garlic bulb into the soup.
- Once the soup has come to a boil, stir everything around with a stirring and mashing action, and then take the pot off the heat.
- You can use any mixer, but with soups, as I like them to stay in the warm pot, I use a bar mixer. Make sure the entire head of the bar mixer is submerged into the soup to avoid a jet ski spray of soup. I tilt my pot to one side whilst mixing, this creates a whirlpool that sucks in bits that haven't been mixed into the mixer blades. Mix the soup to a fine, almost gleaming consistency.
- Taste test and add more salt if you desire, I prefer not to over use salt as this can overpower the naturally occurring flavours of the ingredients which I thoroughly enjoy.
- The soup is now ready to eat, you can garnish with some baby watercress, cilantro, chili, leek grass or coconut oil...or whatever tickles your fancy!
- This soup freezes well and will keep in the fridge for 2 days.
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Enjoy!
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