Image: Charlotte Griffiths
Alex Rushmer serves up a soul-warming soup that’s perfect for a chilly afternoon
Cooking soup is about concentrating flavours – making something wholesome and warming that tastes of the very essence of the ingredients that went into it. Roasting achieves this intense flavour: the process caramelises the pumpkin, giving a deep, satisfying result. Make plenty, freeze any you don’t eat and you’re only ever minutes away from a hearty lunch.
Ingredients
1kg of pumpkin, sliced and deseeded
Cooking oil
Two white onions, peeled and chopped
Two garlic cloves, peeled
Two sticks celery, washed and roughly chopped
50g unsalted butter
1.5l vegetable or chicken stock
Salt
To garnish: pumpkin seeds and pumpkin oil (and plenty of toast)
Step-by-Step
Preheat the oven to 190°C. Place the pumpkin slices in an ovenproof dish, drizzle with cooking oil and season with salt. Cook in the oven until soft and beginning to brown – about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the butter over a medium heat in a saucepan large enough to hold all the ingredients. Add the onion, garlic and celery. Season with salt and cook gently for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
When the pumpkin is cooked, remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Use a spoon to remove the flesh from the skin and add to the pan with the rest of the ingredients. Add the stock, cook for ten minutes then blend until smooth.
To serve, sprinkle over a few pumpkin seeds and drizzle over a little pumpkin seed oil.
