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Recipe: Pumpkin Soup

What better to eat in October than pumpkin soup? Seasonal and delicious, this bright and cheerful vegetable is at its best from October to December. You can have this soup either as an everyday supper, or to jazz it up for Halloween, it’s fun to serve it out of a pumpkin!

Ingredients                                               

1.5kg pumpkin                                               

1 large onion                                                                     

1 carrot                                                                              

2 sweet potatoes

1 stick of celery

5 tbsp double cream

1 tbsp ground coriander

1 litre vegetable or chicken stock

1 handful fresh coriander

Pinch of sea salt & pepper

4 tbsp olive oil

To garnish

1 handful of toasted pumpkin seeds

Crème fraiche

Sprig of coriander

 

Method

1 Preheat your oven to 220C. If you are keeping your pumpkin to serve the soup in, cut off the top and carefully spoon out the pumpkin seeds, and very carefully cut or spoon the pumpkin flesh out. Peel and cut the sweet potato and carrot into cubes about the same size as the pumpkin. Place altogether on a roasting tray and toss in two tbsp of olive oil, sea salt and pepper and roast for 30 minutes or until tender and starting to brown a little.

2 On a small roasting tray spread the pumpkin seeds out, drizzle with oil and salt and bake for a few minutes, then set aside. Keep an eye on these as they can burn very quickly.

3 Meanwhile, heat the rest of the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the chopped onion, celery, ground coriander and stir. Cook for 5-10 minutes or until the onion has softened. Add the roasted vegetables and pour in the hot stock. Reduce the heat to low and leave to simmer for 10-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.

4 Using a handheld blender, blend together until smooth, then add the fresh coriander and cream. Re-heat for five minutes then serve, either in the pumpkin or individual bowls. Swirl in a drizzle of crème fraiche, scatter the toasted pumpkin seeds on top and add a sprig of fresh coriander to garnish.

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