Wednesday 24 October 2012

Simple Pumpkin Soup for Halloween


With Halloween just around the corner and pumpkins appearing in supermarkets around the country, I think it's time we delved into the annual phenomenon that is pumpkin soup.

Call me old fashioned, but I always appreciated pumpkins a little more when they were made into soup, rather than a scary face on the windowsill. Those who can do both with the one pumpkin are to be highly commended for being both inventive and resourceful!

Anyway, onto the pumpkin soup itself and this is probably one of the easiest recipes you will ever have to follow so there's no excuse for not giving it a go over the next week or so. 

First let's start with the ingredients:
750g of diced pumpkin
250g diced potato
2 medium onions, diced
3 chicken stock cubes, crumbled
3.5 cups of water
250ml of thickened cream
Salt & Pepper

For your prep work all you really require is a good quality kitchen knife and a chopping board to save your worktops.

Next, we move onto the method behind the soup:
  1. Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan, except the cream. (Don't you just love it when this happens, it makes cooking so much easier!)
  2. Simmer the contents of the pan until the vegetables have become tender.
  3. Take your pan off the heat.
  4. Blend the soup until smooth, using this Kenwood hand held blender will get the job done fine.
  5. Add the cream at this stage but be sure not to boil the soup again after adding the cream.
  6. Season accordingly.
It's as simple as that! 

This soup normally serves about six. If you have friends and family coming over for a Halloween party why not give it a go and really get in the spirit!

Enjoy!