Friday, April 28, 2006

Pumpkin Soup

Australian Sunset Pumpkin


It's not Mick Jaggers lips - it's a pumpkin called Australian Sunset. It has an usual patterned ochre coloured skin and a deep orange flesh. Spying it on offer at the market, and the change to more cooler weather, spurred me to try it out as a soup.


The difference with this version of Pumpkin soup is that the pumpkin is roasted first! One of the more finger-threatening things to do in the kitchen is remove pumpkin skin - for this recipe that danger element is eliminated. Here you'll be roasting the pumpkin pieces with the skin on - and when they are cooked, the flesh just melts away from the skin, a flat spatula or the back of the knife will easily remove the flesh.

If this pumpkin was to be part of a roast dinner, I'd prepare it in the same way, roast it a little longer to get a crisper skin and serve it skin on - it's prefectly edible.

Roasting the pumpkin for the soup encourages the natural sugars to caramelise and enriches it's flavour creating a more complex soup.

Pumpkin Soup

1kg pumpkin, seeds removed, cut into thick chunks, skin left on
olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 cups vegetable stock
salt and freshly ground pepper
freshly ground nutmeg, to taste
½ cup cream


Place the pumpkin chunks into a dish and splash over with olive oil, ensuring the pieces are lightly coated before placing them on a baking tray and into a preheated 180°C/350°F oven.

Cook until softened and lightly coloured. Set aside and when cool enough to handle, scrap the flesh from the skin and set aside.

In a pot, cook the onion and garlic with a little olive oil. When softened and beginning to colour add the pumpkin flesh and the stock. Stir and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.

Using an immersion blender, puree the soup until it's smooth and creamy. Taste for seasoning and adjust and if you like, add some freshly ground nutmeg. Stir in the cream and let it gently come back to temperature.

Pumpkin Soup

Serve with some crusty bread or for a party idea, serve sip-sized (give the mix another burst with the blender to create a more lighter and aireated mixture before placing it in the cups)

Pumpkin Soup

10 comments

  1. Yum! I wish you a happy autumn. Warm, cozy pumpkin soup and all that stuff. I wonder about your tags. You seem to tag your recipes. Can you always do that?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Autumn is a great season - there's still a lot of variety in the foods you can get and the foods you want to eat.
    When I remember to tag, I tag. I don't think that there's any limits on what you can tag, but you probably want to stick to more general terms.

    ReplyDelete
  3. that looks fantastic! What a lovely presentation of the soup!

    Got here from your comment on my flickr picture! Thanks!

    cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Saffron! Loved those colours and textures in your shot!

    ReplyDelete
  5. The pumpkin and the soup both looklovely.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Kalyn! First time using this pumpkin - it's very creamy and quite velvety - makes a change from the old Butternut pumpkin.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The 'lips' are great - looks just like him! And the soup does look wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks Dave - those pumpkin lips kept me amused but eventually they had to be turned into soup!

    ReplyDelete
  9. mmm, this looks so good, I love pumpkin in any form, will have to make my first batch of the season soon too!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thanks Ange - it's perfect soup weather today as well!

    ReplyDelete

© Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once | All rights reserved.
BLOG TEMPLATE HANDCRAFTED BY pipdig