After my weekend post I suspect you won’t be surprised to find I am currently throwing my culinary tastes at all things involving Pumpkins. There are so many good pumpkin recipes out there for everything from savoury treats to sweet pumpkin pie. It’s pretty hard not to get swept up in all the orangeness. 

I decided the best place to start would be pumpkin soup. I love a good soup, so far this week has felt very rainy and autumnal so my craving for warm and comforting food has definitely started to kick in. 

My associations with pumpkin always seem to be slightly sweet so I usually add either carrot or parsnip to my soup just to give it the slight edge and avoid me tipping actual sugar into the soup. I would use carrot or parsnip interchangeably, but you do whatever you prefer.

I also wanted to have a go at extracting my own pumpkin seeds from there shells – this was an exciting experience – I am not convinced I did it quite right and I ended up eating some of the shell as well – but it actually tasted delicious. It’s pretty simple you just dry of the seeds place them in a dry pan over a low heat and let them cook for about 5/10 mins, (it’s very exciting as they start spinning around in the pan all of there own accord) keep moving them around so they don’t burn  – then pour them out and crush in a pestle and mortar. Not sure if I would recommend this method completely as I did eat some shell and I don’t know if you are supposed to eat them or not – but oh well! 

Anyway enough of the garnish and on with the main event. 

Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients 

1/2 a regular Pumpkin, peeled, deseeded/ fleshed and chopped into chunks

1 Carrot (or Parsnip) peeled, and chopped

2 Garlic Cloves

1cm Ginger

1/2 Red Chilli

1 small Onion

1 handful Red Lentils

500ml Vegetable Stock 

A few sprigs of Thyme 

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method 

1. Chop your onion, place in a pan and fry on a low heat to soften 
2. Add your chopped pumpkin and chopped carrot and leave to soften slightly 
3. Then add chopped garlic, chilli and ginger and stir in 
4. Pour on your vegetable stock, pour in the lentils, put the lid on and leave to slowly simmer for about 20-25mins, adding more liquid if necessary
5. In the meantime toast your seeds ( as I instructed above)
6. After 25mins check your soup and if everything has softened blend with a hand blender, pour into bowls, and serve with a sprinkle of Pumpkin seeds. If the vegetables still feel a little hard, let them simmer for a further 5mins, adding more liquid if necessary (although try not to add too much excess liquid at this point as it will dilute the lovely flavour)

And that is it – Simple Pumpkin and Lentil soup, nice and hearty and a great comforting antidote to feeling cold.