Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkins are cheap at the moment, for obvious reasons. Mrs Jiffler has returned from Rwanda and was expecting a friend to visit for the afternoon while I was at work. I thought I’d rustle up some pumpkin soup the night before so they could spend less time making lunch and more time catching up. It went down a treat apparently.

Pumpkin and Red Pepper Soup

Ingredients:

One pumpkin – not one of the monster ones, something that you can hold in one hand will do.
About a litre of chicken stock (good stuff, from the weekend roast, will make all the difference here)
A small red pepper, chopped
A medium sized red onion
1 small red chilli
Butter or olive oil
A juicy clove of garlic
A generous amount of single cream
A handful of fresh coriander
Large teaspoon of ground cumin
Salt and pepper

Chop the onion and gently fry with the garlic and chilli in butter in a heavy bottomed pan until the onion starts to go soft and sweet. Meanwhile, peel, de-seed and chop the pumpkin into cubes. Fry the pumpkin cubes and chopped pepper in with the onions and garlic until they start to change colour to a deeper amber colour. Stir in the cumin and cook for a few seconds. Pour in the chicken stock and leave to chunter away gently until the pumpkin is soft (about 20-25 minutes). Add the chopped coriander and cook for a minute more.

Take the soup off the heat and pout into a blender. Make sure there is an outlet in the top of the blender as the steam will shoot out as you blend. Blend to the desired consistency – I went for smooth, but a few lumps here and there is a bit more rustic.

(You can keep the soup for a day or so in the fridge, or freeze at this point)

Pour the mixture back into the pan and stir in a generous amount of single cream. Heat, season, and serve hot on a cold day.

Serving ideas:
Mrs Jiffler sliced some chorizo very thinly and fried until crispy, then stirred it into the soup – she reckons this is marvellous. You could also grate in a bit of parmesan if you fancy. This soup would go nicely with a ciabatta style bread, or better still, some fresh sourdough.