Doesn’t this look just delish? On those cold wintry nights, nothing beats a warming, nourishing, delicious bowl of homemade pumpkin soup! My special recipe is the favourite of my family and friends, and can be modified for the paleo diet too.
SERVES 4
What you’ll need:
1 large butternut pumpkin (around 1kg)
1 litre vegetable stock
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
150g Chevre (goats cheese)
1 bunch fresh chives
10-15 sage leaves
300mL cooking cream or for Paleo 1 can full fat coconut milk
Turkish bread (optional)
25g butter
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper
DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. While the oven is heating up, cut the butternut into cubes, discarding the skin, pulp and seeds.
2. Spread the cubed butternut on a flat tray lined with baking paper, then drizzle with olive oil and season generously with salt and a few shakes of pepper. Combine with your hands ensuring that the pumpkin is evenly coated. Wrap the garlic in foil (drizzle a bit of olive oil over it before covering) and place it on the tray. Place in the oven for 1 hour or until it begins to brown.
3. Chop the onion and the sage leaves and put aside.
4. Once the pumpkin is roasted, remove from the oven to cool. Turn on a large burner and preheat a large heavy pot with butter and a little olive oil, then saute the onion until it goes brown. Take the pot off the heat, remove the onion and set aside.
5. Add 1 cup of pumpkin/garlic, several tablespoons of onion, a sprinkle of sage leaves, a cup of chicken stock and a splash of cream to a blender. It’s better to add a little bit at a time until you are confident in the amounts, and that the pumpkin has mostly cooled or risk an explosion. Trust me I learned this the hard way – pumpkin explosions are not fun. Blend in batches, emptying as you go into the heavy pot.
6. When the pumpkin, cream and stock have been completely blended and added to the pot, turn the heat on low and simmer, stirring to heat through. The soup will be quite thick and will spit so have a lid handy to ensure it heats up.
7. Pop your turkish bread into the oven and grill for 5 min or until brown. Chop the chives up.
8. Ladle the soup into bowls, crumbling the chevre in the middle, then top with chives and some pepper. Butter your turkish bread and stick into the soup!
ENJOY!
This soup will keep for up to 3 days, but it probably won’t last that long! If you’re doing the Paleo version, and find the coconut taste too powerful I suggest adding more roasted garlic cloves to cut through the sweetness, or season the pumpkin with cinnamon before roasting.
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