The one and only real pumpkin soup

Hey there!

 

Remember what I said in my last post? You know the one about the fig focaccia. What was it again I thought would go so perfectly with this delicious bread creation of mine?

 

Exactly pumpkin soup. But I am not talking about any ordinary pumpkin soup here. When I say pumpkin soup I do not mean boiled and pureed pumpkin thinned with premade vegetable stock until you reach a soupy consistency. No I am talking about delicious flavours of roasted vegetables, homemade stock, hints of thyme and rosemary topped with some roasted pumpkin seeds as a little special something to add to the whole delightfulness.

 

I’m not judging you if you don’t know what real pumpkin soup should taste like. I mean I was in the same boat until I experienced the absolutely amazing pumpkin soup my hostparents used to prepare on cold or not so cold, if you go by Swiss standards, Aussie winter nights.

When I had the pleasure to try this amazing creation for the first time I was absolutely blown away. Though I started questioning my ability to judge things, how could I have accepted this yucky liquefied pumpkin puree as pumpkin soup for the past 17 years?

I, Fanny, the girl with the extraordinarily sophisticated taste buds didn’t know what actual pumpkin soup was until she was nearly a grown-up. What a disaster!

 

After having overcome my self-doubts I braced myself up again and asked my host parents. What is the secret, why is this soup so extremely delicious? Sweet and yet savoury, just full of flavour.

 

The answer was simple. You’ve got to roast your veggies! That’s it, nothing else, no special spice or herb, no secret ingredient. Just a simple step, which seems to have gone missing in all those lovely Swiss pumpkin soup recipes.

Well there was also some sweet potato and carrots added, but during the following months I had numerous pumpkin soups and they didn’t include those, they just didn’t skip the roasting process, hence they were delicious.

 

I never received the actual recipe for the soup. You see, my hostmum just never cooked by recipe, so she could never accurately tell me all the ingredients added, thus I had to come up with my own version of the one and only real pumpkin soup.

 

I went all out and added the desired sweet potato, even though I said I wouldn’t eat sweet potato for a while in my stuffed sweet potato post due to its traveling distance as well as the price. I guess I need to retract my words on that one, sorry…

 

Besides sweet potato I also included two carrots, two onions, a clove of garlic and obviously some rosemary and thyme, I did skip the parsley and the sage though.

Well salt and pepper was added too and to roast the pumpkin seeds I also had to include some agave syrup and chilli flakes.

 

I was absolutely satisfied with the outcome of my soup creation. It definitely reminded of the one my hostparents used to prepare. This was such a tasty dinner, just so good.

 

I guess now it is time to also relieve you of the baby food like pumpkin soup you’ve known so far. Now you’ll finally get to eat a real pumpkin soup. You won’t be having the other stuff anymore, trust me.

 

 

 

Ingredients

1kg Hokkaido pumpkin (for me this was half a pumpkin)

1 sweet potato (approx. 300g)

2 carrots (approx. 200g)

2 red onions

1 clove of garlic

thyme (I used dried)

rosemary

salt

pepper

chilli flakes

½ tsp agave syrup

olive oil

 

 

1. Cut your pumpkin in half, remove the seeds, separate the seeds from the pulpy bit
2. Finely chop up your rosemary
3. Add 1tsp of olive oil, salt, a pinch of chilli flakes, agave syrup and your chopped rosemary to the seeds and mix well, place on a lined baking sheet
4. Next to the pumpkin seeds also place the pumpkin, a whole sweet potatoes, 2 whole onions, 2 whole carrots and 1 clove of garlic on the baking sheet and a few sprigs of rosemary, bake at 200°C
5. After 30 minutes take out the seeds and the rosemary, bake for another 30 to 40 minutes or until all your veggies are soft. Turn off the oven and let them cool for about 30 minutes.
6. Peel the carrots, the onion, the garlic and the sweet potato, the pumpkin doesn’t need to be peeled. Do not throw away the scraps!
7. Fry your roasted rosemary and 1tbs of dried thyme in some olive oil together with the roasted and peeled clove of garlic.
8. After your ingredients have been frying for about five minutes add about 1.5 to 2 litres of water, depending on how runny you like your soup as well as the vegetable scraps and some salt (about 1-2tsp) and pepper (if you like) Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn the heat down and let it simmer over medium heat for about 30 minutes.
9. After 30 minutes poor your homemade stock through a sieve into the pan you want to puree the soup. Add the peeled vegetables, puree until smooth, done!

 

Voila, now you know it too, that’s how you prepare a pumpkin soup. Roast the veggies guys, don’t boil them. This soup was as already mentioned an absolute succes. I served it topped with my rosted pumpkin seeds and some fresh porcnini mushrooms, which I had fried with some garlic and thyme. And as I said in my last post, my rosemary and fig focaccia would go just perfectly with this soup.

 

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend with weather just as amazing as the one we are currently experiencing in Switzerland. It is already mid October but 22°C, isn’t that wonderful?

 

 

Bisous

Fanny, the foodie