Pumpkin Soup

This is my twist on a popular pumpkin soup recipe, it's great at this time of year when the days are getting colder and everyone's scooping out all that fantastic pumpkin goop to carve their jack-o-lanterns!

Pumpkin soup is warming, creamy, nutritious and really really tasty! Once made it keeps great in the fridge for up to 5 days. It also freezes really well and if frozen in blocks takes up less space than a skinned and chopped pumpkin.

I added a small amount of cumin to give it warmth and add to the flavour of the pumpkin. This recipe's also fantastic with butternut squash and good with any other squash.

Pumpkins are in season from September onwards.

Gather your ingredients.

• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 onions
• 1kg pumpkin or squash flesh (mine was of a medium size, it weighed 1600g before chopping up and 900g after. Small pumpkins tend to be the tastiest)
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp turmeric (optional)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 2 vegetable stock cubes
• 150ml double cream
• 500ml boiling water
• dash of pepper

Finely chop the onions.

Heat the olive oil on a low heat in a large pan.

Add the onions and fry on a low heat until they're soft, not brown.

Halloween was too far off when I made this for me to bother with scooping out the insides to keep the skin for lanterns.

Lop off the top and bottom to make it more stable then divided it down the middle. Scoop out the seeds and save them. They're great roasted.

Mine was a nice fresh and young pumpkin from my garden and so the skin was still very thin. A peeler did the job at removing the skin. If yours is slightly older or bigger you make need to shave it off with a sharp knife.

Cut the two halves of the peeled pumpkin into evenly sized cubes.

Add the pumpkin to the pan. Fry with the onion for about 10 minutes until the flesh becomes darker and begins to soften.

Add the cumin and turmeric. My pumpkin wasn't particularly orange so I decided to add the quarter teaspoon of turmeric to give it some colour.

Fry the pumpkin and onion with the spice for a further 5 minutes.

Finely chop the garlic and crumble the stock cube, add to the pan.

Pour on 500ml boiling water.

Add a lid and simmer on a medium-low heat for 20-30 minutes or until the pumpkin is soft.

Stir occasionally.

Turn down the heat and add 150ml double cream. Stir it in then bring to a low boil. Turn off the heat.

I used a hand blender straight in the pan so I could blend it while it was still hot. Alternatively, allow to cool slightly then add it to a liquidiser or food processor.

Taste the soup. You may need to add a little salt or more pepper to taste.

Serve piping hot with buttery toast or crusty rolls, with a sprig of parsley on top (yes, we forgot that, we were hungry).

Enjoy!