Autumn: Pumpkins abound, time for soup!

I love autumn.  Of course here in the UK it means darkness, rain, and a chill in the air.  But I can’t shake the memories of being on the east coast of the US, enjoying the crisp air and the colours of the trees, football season, visits to the pumpkin patch and hayrides…  Ok, maybe my memories are a little sentimental, but I do love the autumn.  And I love that autumn is a great excuse to make great soups, good for warming up cold bones and taking the chill out of the air.

One of my favourite soup recipes is from Nigel Slater.  We found it years ago and have adapted it over time.

The original recipe uses bacon for garnish– but we use sausage meat, cooked up in a separate pan, just the meat, done like a crisp minced beef (but with sausage meat).  We use normal sausages and just extract the meat from the casing – but you can also get sausage meat at a good butchers.  Or you can use bacon crisped up in a frying pan, and then just crumbled over the soup.  Or don’t use meat at all – the soup alone is rich and yummy with or without meat.

Inspired by Nigel – Spicy Pumpkin Soup

(should make four generous portions; total cooking and prep time a little over an hour)

 

Ingredients

1 medium onion, roughly chopped
50g (about 2 tablespoons) butter
2 plump cloves of garlic, peeled and finely diced
900g (about 2 pounds) pumpkin – I use any pumpkin or butternut squash
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoons cumin seed
2 small dried chillies (or 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes) – use chili to taste!
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
4 rashers smoked bacon (or sausage meat)
up to 100ml (about ¼ cup) single cream

 

Instructions:

1. Peel and roughly chop the onion. Peel and slice / finely dice the garlic.
2. Peel the pumpkin, remove the stringy bits and seeds and discard them. You are left with the flesh of the pumpkin, chop this into rough cubes
3. Toast the coriander seeds and cumin in a small pan over a low heat until they start to smell warm and nutty – about two minutes.  Grind the roasted spices in a coffee mill or using a pestle and mortar.  I always grind the spices and also add the chilli flakes at this stage. Keep to one side.
5. Melt the butter in a large, heavy-based saucepan and cook the onion and the garlic until soft and translucent. I always add salt in the pan while softening onions and garlic as for me it seems to stop burning which causes a horrid bitter taste (to be avoided at all costs).
6. Add the pumpkin chunks to the onion and garlic mixture (once translucent). Cook until the pumpkin is golden brown at the edges.
7. Add the spices and the chillies to the onions and pumpkin. Cook for a minute or so to infuse the flavour.
8. Add the stock. Leave to simmer for 20 minutes or so until the pumpkin is tender.
9. Meanwhile, fry the sausage meat (or bacon) if you want to add it to the soup.  Use the same pan that you used to toast the spices. Fry until crispy.  The meat should be broken up like a ground beef mince – nice and small pieces, used as a garnish almost.  If you are using bacon, make it really crispy and then cool it and cut it up with scissors into small pieces.
10. Once the pumpkin is tender, put the soup into a blender, food processor, or use a hand blender and puree until smooth.
11. Add the cream and taste, adding salt and pepper as necessary.
12. Return to the pan, heating through again (almost to a boil).Serve with the sausage (or bacon) added on top as a garnish.  And enjoy!

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