We don’t do Halloween in our house. October 31st is Dinosaur Day for us, the start of Dinovember, the most awesome month! This doesn’t mean that we don’t like the burnt orange leaves of Autumn and of course, big bowls of delicious pumpkin soup!
I’m quite ‘see what happens’ with my cooking but here’s an easy recipe for you to nail whether you’re carving some jack o’lanterns or not!
Gently heat a few lugs of oil in a decent sized stock pan whilst you chop a large onion. Once you have a sufficient amount of tears dripping from your face, throw the chopped onion into the pan and give it a stir.
Next, take the inners, excluding the seeds, of your pumpkin (about 1kg if we’re getting technical with weight) and chop into chunks. Make the chunks similar in size but don’t worry about precision. This is no wall art, it’s going to be blended soon! Keep cooking for about 8/7 minutes until it starts looking nice and golden. Don’t forget to stir now and then.
Whilst that’s doing it’s thing, get some pumpkin seeds, chuck them in a bowl with a little oil and shake them around. Then lay them out on a non stick baking tray and chuck them in the oven at about 200 °C. Keep an eye on them until they’ve gone golden and toasted, it should take about 20 minutes or so.
You need some stock now. For 1kg of pumpkin we’re looking at maybe 700ml of stock. You can go with chicken stock or maybe choose vegetable so it’s suitable for vegetarians. Poor it into the pan, covering the pumpkin and onion. Let it simmer away for another 10 minutes. Chuck some salt and pepper in too.
Get a little tub of double cream and pour that into the mix. Give it a stir and let it come back to the boil. Now get the hand blender and stick it in the mixture. Give it a good blend to it all comes together into a delicious soupy puree.
If you want to make it extra smooth and get rid of any bits for fussy “I’m not eating that” kids, work it through a fine sieve. Then pop it into bowls, toss a few of your toasted pumpkin seeds on top and if you’re feeling fancy and have any left, spoon over a drizzle of cream in a fancy pattern.
All that’s left to do is eat! Serve up with crusty bread. All the noms!
For extra heat, pop in some fresh chilli when you add the pumpkin or ground chilli when you pour in the stock and add your seasoning. It can really help keep the incoming winter weather at bay.
Don’t forget, there’s plenty of nature out there that’s hungry too. Once you’re finished with your jack o’lantern, or have got some pumpkin outside pieces remaining, pop them at the end of your garden. Wildlife like squirrels love feasting on pumpkin! Waste not! Tasty!
