Pumpkin soup with roasted seeds

01Nov09

There’s nothing like a warming soup on a wed and windy winters day. The pumpkin has to be the king of winter soup vegetables and this is my favourite recipe for it. The addition of the roasted seeds gives a slight nuttiness to the creamy pumpkin and it’s great to use all the pumpkin. Try this soup next Halloween!

Pumpkin Soup with roasted seeds

Ingredients

3 kilograms Pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and chunked
0.25 kilogram Chantenay carrots, chunked
2 Onions, diced
4 Cloves of garlic, crushed
4 tablespoons Olive oil
1 tablespoon Coriander, ground
1 tablespoon Cumin seeds
2 teaspoon Marjoram
1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
1.5 litre Vegetable stock
Salt and pepper

Directions

For the soup:

Pre-heat the oven to 190C.
Deseed and peel the pumpkins, reserving the innards. Then chunk the carrots and pumpkin flesh.
Coat the carrots and pumpkin chunks in half the oil and season generously. Spread them out evenly on a baking tray and roast for 25-30 minutes until soft and lightly browned.
Gently roast the coriander, cumin seeds and marjoram in a dry frying pan until they become fragrant, but be careful not to burn them. Remove from the heat and reserve.
Peel and finely chop the onion and crush the garlic. Fry gently in the remaining oil until transparent.
Add the reserved spices and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.
Add the roast vegetables and stock, stirring well. Simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Blend until smooth.
Simmer for 10 more minutes before serving. Be careful to put a lid on when simmering this time, it’s like pumpkin lava!

For the seeds:

Separate the seeds from the pumpkin innards – the only real way to do this is to slowly pick through the gunk – then wash them.
Spread the washed seeds evenly on a large baking tray and lightly salt them. Roast for 10 minutes.
Drizzle very lightly with oil and sprinkle with cayenne pepper. Roast for another 10 minutes.