Mega Pumpkin Soup
The first one said, “Oh, my, it’s half past eight!”
The second one said, “There are witches in the air!”
The third one said, “Good folk, beware!”
The fourth one said, “We’ll run and run and run!”
The fifth one said, “Let’s have some fun!”
OOOOOOOH, went the wind
And OUT went the light
And the five little pumpkins
Rolled out of sight.
As I’m sure you are aware, it’s pumpkin season and I’m happy to eat away. I don’t like winter, the dark or the cold, but this year I am trying to find some love within me for this freezing season and I think it will have to be via soups and mulled wine. I LOVE butternut squash and I normally make this soup with two butternuts and a can of sweetcorn, but today I jazzed it up:
Recipe:
3 onions
Generous helping of olive oil
3 different pumpkins (I used 2 Hokkaido and 1 butternut squash as they were on sale)
1 large can sweetcorn
Seasoning
500ml milk
500ml boiling water
3 tsp chicken stock
1 jar of Frankfurter sausages
Peel pumpkins and cut into chunks. This can take absolutely ages. With the varied pumpkins I chose, I was literally in the kitchen preparing the pumpkins for an entire hour. I saw diced butternut pumpkin sold at M&S a while back and nearly danced in the aisle. Pumpkins are unbelievably delicious, however they will make you work hard for the taste!
When you are finally done, rough cut the onions and fry them in lots of olive oil for about fifteen minutes. I normally throw in a little water to steam them, as they mustn’t burn – otherwise your soup will have lots of black marks inside it and we obviously don’t want that!
Next throw in all the pumpkins you desire and the whole can of sweetcorn. Season until your heart is content and mix gently – I don’t use a lot of salt, usually none at all really, but pepper is a different story – I can’t get enough of it! If you can get white pepper it will keep the orange colour of your soup, but we didn’t have any in, so I had a few specks of black in the resulting mixture. No big deal.
Pumpkins take a long time to soften, so put the heat on nice and low and be patient. I’m sure it would be fine in ten minutes, but from experience I had some pumpkin that was still hard and difficult to blend. So now, after many years of practice, I leave the veggies to sweat quietly for about half an hour with the lid firmly on.
Next, put the kettle on. While it’s boiling, pour in the milk and sprinkle in the stock. If you prefer, put the stock into the hot water, mix and then pour it into the soup, but I find this a hassle, plus my way means less to wash up! Genius, I know… ahem.
Leave the lid off and put heat on the lowest setting and let the whole mixture gently bubble away for around fifteen minutes but don’t go away – if the milk bubbles over, the soup will not taste good – so give it a gentle stir now and then.
Next, the sausages. Jason often lifts an eyebrow at my obsession with sweetcorn and how I add it to every single thing I make (soup, salad, pizza…) and I saw the eyebrow quiz me yet again when I mentioned sausages in the soup, but he trusts my weird way of making wonderful things blend together perfectly (I think he does anyway – haha). The Frankfurters only need a couple of minutes, so cut them up small and chuck them into another pot with boiling water.
In the meantime, take your soup off the hob and blend it like crazy. Some people like ‘bonus bits’ at the bottom, others don’t – it’s up to you – I love finding a random chunk of pumpkin at the bottom of my bowl. So blend until you get the consistency you like. Drain the sausages, and put them with the soup into bowls, add a fresh cut baguette, friends, pajamas and enjoy!
*Dried fried onions are also the most amazing addition to this soup!