Pumpkin Soup

For pottage and puddings and custards and pies
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies.
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon."

Pilgrim verse, circa 1633

Just when I thought the lovely Spring days with their blue skies and warmer weather had come, today the trees are being tossed around and cold rain is lashing the windows with what looks like a return to Winter.

To celebrate what I thought was the return of warmer weather, I had been going into my vegetable garden at lunchtime to fill a pasta bowl with green lettuce, red lettuce and cos lettuce; chop off garlic chives to snip into it; add a leaf or two of peppermint, and search for that elusive peapod – finishing off with tomatoes, gherkins, feta cheese, to-die -for preserved lemon paste and a slurp of olive oil. And eat it all.

But today, it is cold and I have decided salad just will not do it.  I need something warming.  Something satisfying. What is needed is … Pumpkin Soup.  Hot and delicious Pumpkin Soup.  Pumpkin soup is just the ticket on a cold day such as this.

My pumpkin soup is made with or without stock, with potatoes and sweet potato, with onions and  seasoning.  My pumpkin soup is served with a hunk of gluten-free garlic bread, and never eaten before a big dob of Greek yoghurt is placed in the middle and topped with cheddar cheese sprinkles.  It is a meal fit for a king or queen. I can’t wait for it to be ready.

Want some too?  Then keep on reading...

Pumpkin Soup.

You will need:

1 Onion 

Coconut oil, olive oil or oil of your choosing.

1/2 Pumpkin,

1 potato

1/2 sweet potato.

Enough water, or stock, to cover the vegetables when they are in the saucepan.

Garlic

So, here's what you do:

Fry the onions in the oil.  Really you saute them on a low heat so they sweat rather than fry.  You don't want to burn them as this tastes horrible.

Add the potato and sweet potato - which both should now be diced. 

Pour in the water (or stock) and heat until it is just boiling.

Add the garlic

Allow to simmer until the vegetables are soft.

Then,  take off the heat and when a little cooler blend the soup so it is thick.  You can leave a few chunks for texture if you like soup this way.

Now, serve it.  I serve mine with a dollop of Greek yoghurt placed in the middle of the soup sprinkled with grated cheddar cheese.  It is delicious!

For an indulgence, I also serve with a slice of bread spread with butter then rubbed over with a clove of squashed garlic.  Heavenly.

Until next time, here's to your very good health.

Linda.