Soup Recipes With Pumpkins

From September and right through to mid-winter pumpkins make for a wonderful alternative to potato. This is where I look for recipes with pumpkins because it is such a versatile and valuable addition to the vegetable larder. They store well over what is a traditionally difficult period of the year. They also lend themselves as vehicles for spices from Africa through to Asia and the Americas with Europe in between. Here, I’ve chosen a few that should appeal.

Thailand offers a real difference when it comes to the ordinary. This recipe for a spicy pumpkin and coconut soup turns an ordinary pumpkin into something a little bit special. The coconut helps to tone down the heat in the chili as well as transporting us to a more oriental geography.

Check out our classic dessert recipe for pumpkin pie on this web-site.

If you have a patch of land which is reasonably fertile and not prone to drying out in the summer then why not try growing these winter squashes.

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[1] Thai-Style Spicy Pumpkin And Coconut Soup

For 4 people.

Preparation time: 10 minutes  

Cooking time: 15minutes

Equipment Needed:

• Hand blender
• Heavy bottomed saucepan

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 15g butter
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 4 shallots, chopped
• 2 small fresh red chillies, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped lemongrass
• 500ml chicken stock
• 350ml coconut milk
• 475g peeled and diced pumpkin
• 1 bunch fresh basil leaves

Preparation:

1. In a medium heavy bottomed saucepan, heat the oil and butter over low heat.
2. Fry the garlic, shallots, lemon grass and chilies  together until the aroma comes through.
3. Stir in the chicken stock, coconut milk and pumpkin.
4. Bring to the boil and allow to cook until the pumpkin softens.
5. Blend the soup using a hand-held blender which is preferred or add to a blender in batches to create a smooth soup.
6. Serve garnished with croutons of fried stale bread (what else) and  basil leaves.

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[2] Spicy Pumpkin, Green Lentil And Chickpea Curried Soup

This hearty and creamy pumpkin, green lentil and chickpea curry soup is perfect for the cold weather after a long walk in the frosts.  It has an Indian feel to it which I’ve borrowed from Diana Henry who writes for The Telegraph in the UK but there are numerous recipes out there which combine lentils, green well as red with chickpeas.   The soup is full of veg. and spruced up with curry powder and smoked paprika as well as cardamom and cumin. The preparation should be intended for a food mixer/blender.

Equipment Needed:

• Hand blender
• Heavy bottomed saucepan

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp sunflower oil, maize oil or ghee but not olive oil. Groundnut is typically used but it isn’t in everyone’s store cupboard.
• 1 large yellow onion, roughly chopped or diced
• 5 garlic cloves, minced, sliced – whatever you feel fits here
• 1 ½ tablespoons curry powder
• 600g pumpkin flesh, peeled, deseeded, and cubed
• 30g raw ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
• 2 fresh hot chilis such as really hot Padron and habanero peppers from the greenhouse. This is the optional bit. You can use Kashmiri if it needs to be authentically Indian but who would know from the final dish?
• 2 teaspoon ground cumin or 2 tsp cumin seeds
• A cinnamon stick – optional as to how much but really one suffices
• 5 cardamom pods which need to be crushed in a pestle and mortar
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 * 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
• 5 cups unsalted vegetable stock
• 1 or 2 cans (15 ounces each/400g) chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 75g green lentils. Red lentils work here as well.
• 2-3 handfuls of fresh spinach or kale  which are de-stemmed and torn into bite-size pieces.
• 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice (optional) which lends some sourness but it’s not an essential requirement. I use lime-calamondin crosses which come off a small plant kept in the kitchen as an ornament. The fruit works just as well and it depends on how you really feel.
• 1 pinch salt and pepper just for taste

Preparation:

1. Blend the chopped onions in a processor with enough water to produce a rough paste. Use a stick blender as we do with other recipes if a bowl blender isn’t to hand. Add to a bowl.
2. Blend the ginger and garlic with 2 tbsp of water.
3. Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed cooking pot with a lid.
4. Add the onions, chillis, cardamom pods, cumin seeds. Fry and use the onion mix as a measure of how well the frying process is going. Too much added water will make the mixture spit so take care here. The onions should go translucent then slight brown and caramelized. It takes about 10 minutes. If you add cumin seeds first they should fizz in the oil – it’s just for effect.
5. Add the chopped tomatoes. A tsp of sugar can also be added here but it isn’t absolute because sweetness can be overdone. The tomato should be allowed to thicken slightly. It’s a matter of preference by how much but too much is when the tomato has gone dry and claggy like grouting paste!
6. Cook the whole lot on a medium heat with plenty of stirring.
7. Add the lentils and pumpkin with stock.
8. Add the greens if they are needed.
9. Boil but then turn the heat down to simmer for between 40 and 50 minutes
10. Add the chickpeas which would be cooked about 5 minutes from the end.
11. If you add the lime juice, then now is the time!
12. Using a stick blender, gently pulse the ingredients. For a chunkier soup, just don’t puree all the chickpeas and lentils.
13. Season with salt and pepper to taste.