Maybe A Day Late, But... The real pumpkin soup.

[mrdee 1]

Halloween might be a day behind us, however, a recipe for pumpkin soup never goes amiss, especially if it is a real "yummy yummy" pumpkin soup.

 

Before I start with the recipe, I want to give a tip (a very important one) on a general rule when making soup.

 

Here it goes:

 

When making a soup you are going to blend, always stew your vegetables first.

When making a soup with bits of vegetable in it, just boil your vegetables.

The reason for that is the way vegetables release their taste and aroma.

When there are bits of vegetables present in the soup, the vegetables nicely, slowly and equally keep releasing their taste and aroma.

In a blended soup, where the vegetables have been mangled, the taste has already to be present, and it will also be retained, so the stewing of the vegetables releases all the taste and aroma in one go, and then, at the end, the soup can be blended and retains the full vegetable taste.

 

If you do not stew your vegetables in a blended soup, you will basically end up with a pond, in which your vegetables have drowned, and you will have a dull, watery soup that is low in taste.

 

Any way, for the pumpkin soup, here it goes:

 

You need:

 

1 or 2 pumpkins (according to taste).

1 onion.

1 potato.

2 leeks.

2 oranges (optional).

1 cube (or if using paste) 1 dessert spoonful of vegetable stock.

2 litres of water.

10 centiliters of cream

some parsley, preferably freshly chopped.

The method:

 

Take the flesh out of the pumpkin(s) and cut into pieces.

Peel the potato and cut into pieces. (The potato, like the other vegetables, aids the taste, but also provides some extra "binding" for the soup to make it somewhat thicker).

Chop up the onion.

Use the white of the leeks, cut into pieces.

 

In a large pan, melt some butter (or margarine or (olive) oil).

Put in all the vegetables, spice with some pepper and salt and let them stew for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring occasionally.

 

When the vegetables are ready, fill the pan with water to cover your vegetables (takes about 2 litres).

Bring your water to the boil, add the vegetable stock and let the soup simmer for 35 to 40 minutes.

When you start this (this is optional, but, in my opinion, makes a lovely difference), squeeze out 2 oranges in your soup, as pumpkins are very sweet, and the oranges will add a little bit of acidity to your soup.

 

When the soup is finished, blend everything, stir in your cream and finish off with sprinkling the parsley into your soup.

 

Please let me know how you get on.

Edited November 1, 2011 by mrdee (see edit history)