The Weekend Soup! - Pumpkin Soup

This weekend's soup is nothing too complicated. For pumpkin soup I don't think a strict recipe is really necessary, so what I am going to give you are some approximations, for you to adjust as you please.

Ingredients:

1-2 tbls. of olive oil
1.5 kg of pumpkin
1 stick of celery

About a 1/4 of a capsicum
Some garlic - couple of cloves or teaspoon of crushed garlic
(or an onion in lieu of the celery and capsicum. I use these because I am meant to avoid onions due to my fructan intolerance).

Approx. 1 litre of chicken stock (you may need more)

salt and pepper

Chop the pumpkin into small pieces, approximately 3 to 4 cms in diameter. Now pop the pumpkin into the oven to roast. This technique is used by Beverley Sutherland-Smith, which I really like because it intensifies the flavour.

Chop the celery and capsicum, crush the garlic and cook these off in the olive oil for a few minutes. Now, I was going to add a slug of vermouth at this point a la Nigella, but forgot to. But you can. Cook it off if you do.

Add the pumpkin and stock. I like my pumpkin soup quite thick so just cover the pumpkin with the stock. Add more if you like it a bit looser.

Give everything a stir and cook until the pumpkin is very soft and starts to break up. This should take about 10-15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Once the soup is cooked let it cool down. Blitz it in a food processor, use a stick blender or you can even mash it.

S. likes a bit of bulk to his soups, so I added a can of chickpeas prior to reheating the soup. You could add some small pasta or risoni instead if you like. Just make sure to cook these off properly - add some more stock if needed.

Enjoy!