My festive pumpkin soup recipe

Hey everyone! 

I really want to share with you my recipe for pumpkin soup because it's getting to that time of the year where I love to make warming, homely food. Soup is something I associate with Autumn and Winter and so I made pumpkin soup recently and thought I would share.

I absolutely love pumpkin, it's one of my favourite ever vegetables. I get so excited for this time of year because they come back to supermarkets and I can go crazy and experiment. The other day I was shopping and wasn't expecting to see edible pumpkins on the shelves, but there they were!!! You can imagine the delight. So obviously I bought one, and a load of other ingredients to make my festive pumpkin soup. Perfect for Autumn.

What you will need:

● 1 small edible pumpkin

● 1/2 of a large butternut squash OR 1 small one

● 2 large carrots

● 4 large potatoes (you could use sweet potato if you wanted)

● 150g of mixed baby sweet peppers (apprx. 6 baby peppers)

● 1/2 of a white onion 

●1/2 of a red onion 

● 1 clove of garlic 

● 1 vegetable stock cube OR chicken stock cube if you prefer

● Dried chilli flakes

● A pinch of nutmeg

● A pinch of cayenne pepper 

● A pinch of smoked paprika

● Sea salt and coarse cracked black pepper to season

● A large pan to boil the veg

● A medium sized frying pan
● A blender (handheld or normal)

This recipe will serve approximately 6 people. You can freeze the left overs and defrost whenever you want, or keep in the fridge for up to a week, no longer.

Method:

1. Cut the pumpkin, squash, carrots and potatoes into 1 inch pieces. 

2. Add the veg to a large pan filled with seasoned cold water and leave to boil.

3. Cut the peppers and onions into 1 inch pieces and chop the garlic into thick slices. Leave veg to one side.

4. When the boiling vegetables are close to being done (test a piece of pumpkin to make sure - a knife should slice through easily), turn the heat off and leave in the hot water while you lightly fry the onion, peppers and garlic in a splash of olive oil. 

5. While the veg is frying, add dried chilli flakes (quantity depending on how hot you want it), a pinch of nutmeg, a pinch of cayenne pepper and a pinch of smoked paprika. You can now boil the kettle ready for the stock.

6. Once the onions are transparent and the peppers have softened, you can remove the veg from the heat.

7. Drain the boiled vegetables and add back into the pan. 

8. Add the fried vegetables to the veg in the pan and add a litre of stock. If need be, you can add more hot water from the kettle until the water is almost covering the top of the vegetables.

9. Put the pan back on the heat, and leave to simmer until the vegetables are completely soft and all of the flavours have combined.

10. Once the vegetables are completely done, you can take the pan off the heat and blend. If you are using a handheld blender (like I did), you can do this while it's still hot, but be careful as it might splash up. And it burns. Trust me, I know. If you are using a normal blender I would recommend leaving the veg to cool a little. You will also need another pan to put the blended soup into, as you will probably need to blend in batches.

11. Once everything is blended and the soup is smooth, you can season again if needed. Then, you can serve and enjoy!!!

Serving recommendation:

Add croutons to the top of the soup for some added texture, OR serve with a warm, buttered, crusty roll for dipping! Mmmmm.

Thanks so much for reading, I hope I've inspired you to make some yummy pumpkin soup.
Speak to you in my next post.

Love H ♥