Pumpkin soup

We hope you all had a lovely Halloween and your pumpkin carvings kept away the ghouls  for another year. In this blog we will show you how to use your extra pumpkins that you have left over to make pumpkin soup. A perfect way to use the last of your pumpkins and make you feel all autumnal.

There are many varieties of pumpkin and gourds to choose from some are best for carving and some are perfect for cooking. we decided to use the crown prince as it is an old variety winter squash with a lovely nutty flavour perfect for pumpkin soup. It also stores very well and can be kept for up to 3 months if kept in a cool dry place.

This recipe will serve 6-8 or 2 for a long time if you freeze it, and it freezes lovely

You will need

A 4kg pumpkin 

4 cloves of garlic 

olive oil

2 onions 

1.7 litres of vegetable stock

1 tsp of cinnamon 

ground nutmeg

Step 1
The first step is to preheat your oven to gas mark 6. Then cut your pumpkin into wedges if your using a Crown prince like we are be warned they are notoriously tough to cut into, so using a very sharp knife or a chainsaw if you have one handy that will do the job.

Step 2

Once you have cut your pumpkin into segments you will need to peel your garlic using 4 cloves. put the pumpkin and garlic cloves onto a baking tray and drizzle on some olive oil and a sprinkle on a little salt and pepper, Put them in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes until tender. Whilst you waiting for them to cook continue onto the next step.

Step 3 

Whilst your pumpkin is cooking away in the oven its time to chop up your onions extra points to anyone who can do this without crying. add the onions into a large pot and put in 2 tbsp of olive oil with them cooking them on a low heat for 10-15 minuets until golden brown

Step 4

Once your pumpkin is nice a tender take it out of the oven and cut off the skin, add the pumpkin to the pot with the onions,then add your 1.7 litres of vegetable stock and sprinkle in  a pinch of ground nutmeg and a table spoon of cinnamon and bring to the boil. 

Step 5

Allow the soup to cool and you can either transfer in batches your soup to a blender or use a hand blender. we used a hand blender as its all we had. It smells amazing.

 Blend the soup together until thick and creamy 

Once your soup is smooth and creamy you can sit back and enjoy this lovely autumnal treat
its easy at this stage to put in containers and pop in the freezer in single servings.