During my usual Sunday papers session, Grant Allen's recipe for pumpkin soup caught my eye. I couldn't (and in the end didn't) wait long to try this out. Perfect for a Lazy Sunday, when I have the patience and luxury of time to prepare and execute something like this.
I changed his recipe slightly, and used two small pumpkins rather then a large one, as half of the appeal was serving the soup up right in the pumpkin it was roasted in. You may need to vary cooking times and ingredients depending on the size of your pumpkin(s).
Ingredients:
x2 small pumpkins
Butter
Soup mixture: Combine 500ml cream, 500ml chicken stock, x1 medium onion - chopped and sauteed, half teaspoon of nutmeg, salt and pepper.
Tasty grated cheese (as much/ little as you like, or none at all)
Cut the tops off both pumpkins and scoop out the seeds, leaving a solid internal wall with the pumpkin flesh left intact.
Sit the pumpkins in a large greased baking dish and drop into the bottom of each a nob of butter. Fill pumpkins with half portions each of 'Soup mixture'. Replace the pumpkin lids and pop into the oven, pre-heated to 230 degrees.
Cook for one hour.
Take the pumpkins out of the oven, remove lids.
Stir in as much or as little cheese as you like.
Pop lids back on and pumpkins back into the oven.
Leave in for at least another hour before removing from the oven. When you do, the pumpkins should have softened to the point where as you scoop out the liquid with the flesh it creates a luscious, rich soup.
Leave the pumpkins to sit for a few minutes before transferring to individual dinner plates. Careful now- You do not want the bottoms to drop out.
Serve with pumpkin and chives bread.
Very creamy, rich and decadent. Quite frankly delicious . . .
If I do say so myself!
