Pumpkin love story

Hello!

It has been a pumpkin-y weeks: Two pumpkin soups in seven days... Two different ones that is.

I am a huge pumpkin fan! It's like food for the soul. Growing up I never had pumpkin because my mum wasn't too fond of it (she is now that she had my yummy pumpkin soup. Hurray). I had my first pumpkin soup in a little restaurant / café in Katoomba. Katoomba is a city in the Blue Mountains and my good friend Anne and her daughter Jen took me there one day. The restaurant was cute, homely and had brilliant food. My pumpkin soup was served in a bowl out of bread. Oh my god - it was love at first sight. I ate every little bit of it! If you ever make it to Katoomba make sure to check out the café. It's called Yellow Deli. They might not have pumpkin soup every day but their other food is pretty good, too! So is the hot chocolate by the way...

After I returned to Germany I kept on dreaming of pumpkin soup but never dared to make it myself (that or I was too lazy). Michelle can tell you that I never was very good at cooking nor was I really into it. This changed when the boyfriend and I moved in together. Now it wasn't just cooking for one person but cooking for two. The boyfriend is still a far better cook than I am but some dishes I can make rather well. Pumpkin soup is among them. It all started in 2011 when I bought a 12 kilo pumpkin at a farmers market. It took me a half a day to slice, weigh and freeze in portions but it was worth it. I made my first pumpkin soup that day. I used a recipe from Sarah Wiener and it turned out quite well! Well, everything except the portions. It said to feed four and it did, but barely. So it won't work if you want to have soup as a decent main dish instead of a starters. Since then I change the recipe a bit every time I made a soup. Now 40 kilos of pumpkin later the recipe looks like this:

Anne's pumpkin soup for the soul

This will feed around 6-8 people (I freeze the rest if it's just the boyfriend and me).

Ingredients

1 kg pumpkin
600 g sweet potato
2 red onions
A large piece of ginger (thumb sized)
4 garlic gloves
2 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons of curry powder

1 l veggie stock
1 l milk

Salt
Pepper

Optional to top the soup with:
Bacon
Creme Fraiche
Pumpkin oil

This is how you do it:

Chop the onions, the garlic and the ginger. Heat the butter in a pot over medium heat and add the onions, garlic and ginger. Let them fry for some time until you can properly smell all the flavours.

Chop the pumpkin and the sweet potatoes and add to the pot. Let them fry for some time.

Add the curry powder and stir well.

Add the stock and let simmer for about 20 minutes.

Add milk and let simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

Purée the whole lot with a hand blender.

Add salt and pepper to taste.


Give it a try! It is so yummy! As I said it freezes well and tends to taste best on the second day! Yum! Now have a look at my pumpkin love story ... :P

Hm, I think I should have some pumpkin now... :P

More crochet soon! I jumped on the corner to corner wagon and boy, I LOVE it...

Take care,
Anne