Pumpkin three ways

It’s that time of year! Are you carving a halloween pumpkin? If so, do not, I repeat, do not throw ANY of it away. You can use the delicious meat for soup and the pumpkin seeds can be roasted with spices on for a tasty snack (instead of chips or popcorn). You can also use them as a healthy topper (kind of like croutons) for soup or salads. No food waste at all.

There are tons of pumpkin soup recipes out there but I rarely follow recipes when I’m making soups or stews. I feel like you can just taste them and add stuff as you go along. So here’s what I came up with when freestyling yesterday. It tasted pretty good so I thought I’d share it in case you want some inspiration.

Pumpkin soup

Ingredients

• Flesh from 1 medium pumpkin

• 1 - 1.5 litre Chicken/vegetable stock

• 1 small yellow onion (diced)

• Garlic*

• A dash of: thyme, parsley, nutmeg, white pepper, coriander, cumin, black pepper

• 400ml coconut milk

*I used a whole head of garlic that had been previously roasted in another dish (because I didn’t want to waste it) and then took it out when the soup was done. If you don’t have one and you don’t want to roast one especially(!) then maybe just use a clove or two of fresh garlic instead.

Method

1. Put everything (except the coconut milk) in a large pan and simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the pumpkin is soft.

2. Blend until there are no lumps left.

3. Add coconut milk and rewarm.

4. Taste the soup and add more spices if necessary.

5. Serve topped with roasted pumpkin seeds if you like.

Roasted pumpkin seeds

1. Preheat oven to 185ºC.

2. Separate the seeds from the flesh and spread them out on a baking tray covered with greaseproof paper.

3. Sprinkle with spices (I used salt, black pepper, and a little cayenne pepper).

4. Add a drizzle of olive oil.

5. Roast for about 10-15 minutes. When they start to smell delicious, they are ready!

6. Make sure that the seeds are well spread out until they are totally cooled. If they are bunched together or covered, they won’t be crunchy.

My son wanted a happy face on one side…

…and an angry face on the other!