Creamy Pumpkin Soup

This Creamy Pumpkin Soup is a delicious, easy meal to prepare for family and friends. It's also one of the best ways of enjoying the popular orange squash we all love so much!


Besides looking awesome and tasting delicious, pumpkin is also very good for you: low in fat and cholesterol and high in Vitamin A, pumpkin is an antioxidant and has anti-inflamatory properties. The high vitamin A content helps protecting the eyes from cataract, and the Vitamin C, also very high, enhances our natural defences and stimulates the production of collagen to keep the skin soft and elastic.

Here's a list of the varieties that are most commonly grown in Australia:

Butternut: medium-sized, pear- shaped, dry-textured, bright orange flesh. It has a mildly sweet, nutty flavour. It is an ideal variety for stuffing or for puréeing and making into a rich winter soup.

Kent: ribbed green skin, covered with yellow flecks. Their flesh is orange and most of all is sweet and is good roasted, boiled, steamed or stir fried.

Grey: large with smooth grey/blue/green coloured skin, with distinct ribs. The Grey Pumpkin is said to be the best pumpkin to use for pumpkin pies. With its slightly sweet, mild nutty flavour, the Grey Pumpkin (as are most pumpkins) is suitable for both sweet and savoury dishes.

Queensland Blue: large, heavily ribbed, grey-skinned, with a tasty deep orange flesh. This popular variety has excellent keeping abilities. It is versatile and is suitable for roasting, boiling and mashing.

Jap: squat, ribbed pumpkin, it has grey-green skin mottled with yellow and brown. Its orange flesh is sweet and nutty. Having a sweeter taste than most varieties, it is good for roasting. It also suits boiling, steaming and stir-frying.

Golden nugget: small and round, the golden nugget has a deep orange skin and golden yellow flesh. A miniature variety, it has been known to grow up to 500 g, but it is usually sold small. Its mild flavour and high ratio of seeds to flesh make it ideal for hollowing out, stuffing and baking. It can also be used as a container for soup.

What's your favourite?



Ingredients (serves about 4) 
- 1 kg pumpkin pulp, chopped
- 1/2 red onion, roughly chopped
- 500 ml vegetable stock
- nutmeg to taste
- 2 tablespoons extra vergin olive oil
- salt & pepper to taste
- rosemary to taste

Steps 
1. Start frying the onion on a medium heat, in a sauce-pan with one tablespoon of olive oil. Fry for about 3 minutes.

2. Add pumpkin pulp and keep frying for 10 minutes, adding a little bit of vegetable stock (1 or 2 ladles).

3. Turn the heat down to low, add the rest of the stock, put the lid on and leave for 20 minutes, stirring every now and then. Add salt and pepper half way through the cooking time.

4. After 20 minutes, use the immersion hand blender to give the soup its creamy consistency, boil for five more minutes after that, then turn the heat off.

5. Add a tablespoon of olive oil, grate nutmeg on top and serve hot.



Tips&tricks 
Do you usually throw away the pumpkin seeds? this time try to toast them for a few minutes in a fry-pan, add paprika and add them to the soup: yum!

Have a Thermomix?

1. Put the onion into the mixing bowl. 2 Sec. Speed 7

2. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the pumpkin. 6 Min 100°C Speed 1.

3. Add the stock. 20 Min. 100°C Speed 1, then. 15 Sec. Speed 7.

If you want to adjust the texture, you can use the Varoma function. I generally do 20 Min. Temp. Varoma Speed 1.