Roast Pumpkin Soup

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After all the decadence of last weekend, I thought I’d cook something light yet filling. But an entire blog post dedicated to Roast Pumpkin Soup?! Why not, if it’s a celebration of that beautiful, fleshy orange-yellow fruit!

Yes, pumpkin is technically a fruit since it grows from a flower and bears seeds. It is widely grown across the world. Did you know that India is one of the largest international producers of pumpkins, apart from the United States, Canada, Mexico & China?

Apart from turning into a carriage for Cinderella, pumpkins have many other uses – in cooking, as animal feed, making pumpkin seed oil and of course for making Jack-o’-lanterns for Halloween! While cooking, pumpkins can be boiled, baked, steamed or roasted. My personal favourite is roasting, which gives a slightly sweet, caramel-ey flavour to the pumpkin and also a beautiful colour.

“If herbs didn’t exist, I’d give up cooking tomorrow” says Jamie Oliver, and I completely get that sentiment. Though, I can’t decide whether basil or rosemary is my favourite herb! For this recipe, I like to add a few sprigs of rosemary from my kitchen garden to impart its pungent, pine-like aroma to the soup.

This recipe makes 2 generous servings.You’ll need:

200g Pumpkin
1 medium Onion
3 cloves of Garlic
1 small Carrot
Few sprigs of Rosemary
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil
400ml Vegetable Stock
Grated Parmigiano and small sprig of Rosemary to garnish

How to:

Clean, peel and slice the pumpkin. Some recipes suggest that you cut the pumpkin into large pieces and roast, but I find that this increases the roasting time and also doesn’t cook the pumpkin evenly.
Roughly chop the onion, garlic and carrots.
Place everything on a baking tray. Add the rosemary, salt & pepper.
Drizzle lightly with olive oil and mix well using your hands. Spread it out evenly on the tray.

Roast in a preheated oven at 220C for 30 minutes. Remove the tray midway and turn over all the ingredients so that they get roasted on both sides.

Remove and cool. Transfer to the food processor; add a quarter of the stock and blitz to form a puree. You can make the puree as chunky or smooth as you like. I leave it slightly chunky to give some texture to the soup.

Transfer the puree to a saucepan and add the rest of the vegetable stock. Bring to a boil. Cool slightly and transfer to serving bowls.
Garnish with some grated parmigiano and a sprig of rosemary. Enjoy the soup as a light, healthful dinner!