Category: Soups

Roast pumpkin and ginger soup

The golden leaves of autumn, the first feeling of winter chill, a bounty of deep orange pumpkins and inevitably the first sniffs and sneezes of the season. Only one thing to do – gather up pumpkins (or butternut squash) and some fresh ginger and treat yourself to this seductive silky soup that just happens to pack a serious antioxidant punch.

This is one of those recipes that you really can adjust and tweak to your own taste. I often add some carrots or red lentils and I love to make the soup with orange zest and juice too (thinned with some cream for a dinner party). Sometimes I feel in a curry mood and add some curry powder and turmeric. I am guessing that it will work well with smoked paprika as well but have yet to try that combo. Sometimes I garnish with olive oil and toasted pumpkin seeds and sometimes I add cream and a little crispy bacon on top. And for dinner parties I serve in individual cups and saucers – very pretty. Its such a fabulous soup base that you can develop your own twist very easily.

The method is simplicity itself. The roasting makes life easy (no peeling and chopping a hard uncooked pumpkin) and deepens the flavor at the same time so really there is very little to do except blitz and season. Once the pumpkin is roasted the soup takes just minutes.

Ingredients:

1 medium pumpkin,

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic chopped roughly

2 tbsp olive oil,

50g ginger, peeled chopped finely

1 tsp ground coriander seeds

1 tsp turmeric

1 liter chicken or vegetable stock

Optional: 300g boiled carrots (great use of leftovers)

Pumpkin seeds – 50g

How To

Preheat oven to 180C

1. Cut the pumpkin in half, or if a really big pumpkin into quarters. Place on a baking tin and bake. Nothing else needed at this stage – any aromatic expensive olive oil is just going to evaporate off so just leave it naked to bake.

2. Chop the onion up roughly (nobody is going to report you to the onion chopping police because the soup is blitzed up) and fry in the same pan you will make the soup in, just gently until translucent. Add the garlic and fry very gently. Add the coriander seeds, ginger and turmeric.

3. When your pumpkin is cooked (approx 45mins-1 hour) a knife will slice through it like butter. Leave to cool until you can handle the heat. Scoop out the seeds and discard. Scoop out the flesh which will be smooth and soft and place in the pan with the onions and spices. If you are using carrots add them now. Note that this same flesh can be used for pumpkin pie and for pumpkin cup cakes, so if you have loads and loads – freeze it!

4. While you are scooping out the pumpkin put the seeds in to roast (10-15 mins) and release their flavors.

5. Add 1 liter of your stock (if it’s made with a cube it wont be the end of the world) and bring to a boil.

6. Once the pumpkin is ready, add this to the onion and ginger mix and add the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes.

7. Blitz your soup until it is completely smooth. Add more stock or boiling water or milk if it is a little thick.

8. Serve in large bowls sprinkled with the roasted pumpkin seeds scattered over the top, some parsley or lovage (“leustean”) and drizzled with good olive oil. Eat with some great bread and feel a whole lot better.

Brussel sprout & parmesan soup

If like me you were traumatized by school dinner boiled to death, mushy, rancid and a curious shade of muddy pink Brussel sprouts it might be time to revisit them on adult terms. I have recently been experimenting with them (almonds, pancetta and even chorizo thrown into a wok and stir fried) and am becoming a fan.

The trick is I think to stir fry them just until they are browning and caramelizing and this gives an amazing sweet taste that offsets the slightly sulphury compounds found in all brassicas and most importantly it cooks them so they retain their crunch. The addition of cream and parmesan to Brussel sprouts seems to be one of those food “holy trinities” – they go just brilliantly (also good is a gratin of Brussel sprouts with parmesanned breadcrumbs), and this soup uses that to great effect.

This recipe is one of those recipes that is more a guide than a list of quantities to be followed religiously. In these abstemious times it is good to have recipes that seem to be made for using up leftovers and in fact the version I made on Boxing Day this Christmas made full use of the left over gravy and bread sauce…in to the soup pan they went! I think I garnished with crispy bacon but it might have been a parsley drizzle. So here is a recipe with suitable improvs and substitutions thrown in:

Ingredients

1 tbsp sunflower oil

1 medium onion chopped

2 or 3 roast potatoes or parsnips would be fine to add

1 liter of stock or left over gravy made up with water to 1 litre1.2l vegetable stock , made from a stock cube

600g pan fried until caramelized a little Brussel Sprouts (if using leftover sprouts then also do try and fry them to obtain this caramel taste)

Some cream, milk or leftover bread sauce – approx. 500ml

A little nutmeg and fresh thyme and a bay leaf

100g freshly grated parmesan (other strong cheese does work but I like the parmesan)

How To

Fry the sprouts in a wok until caramelized (helps to halve them) with the chopped onion. Add any other vegetables you are using when the Brussels are done.

Pour into a larger saucepan that is big enough to contain all the liquids. Add the stock/gravy and cream, a pinch of nutmeg, a bay leaf and two or three sprigs of fresh thyme.

Bring to the boil and when boiling switch off and add the parmesan. Now blitz with a hand blender. Add milk until you have the consistency that you require.

Note: it is worth making sure you use stock – a stock cube in a hurry never hurt anybody – as it deepens the flavor and help makes the dish taste like soup and not pureed vegetables.

Truffled Celeriac velouté with crispy pancetta

reaches the parts other root vegetables cant reach

First off let’s differentiate between “Celeriac” and “Celery”. Celeriac is the knobbly root vegetable of the species Apium Graviolens and Celery is the name given to the stalks of the same species. Now apparently (not having the greenest of fingers) some varieties are grown for their knobbly roots and some for the stalks.

I personally associate Celery with a series of advertisements for “Philadelphia” cream cheese that featured the white goo spread on stringy celery sticks and Barbie doll women coyly purring “It is my birthday” as if a bit of cream cheese on a watery vegetable stick was as much excitement as they were allowed.  I am (you might have guessed) not a fan of celery but celeriac…that is a whole different ball game.

Just as celery suggests denial and austerity celeriac suggests excess, enjoyment and seduction. Yes I know, seduction by celeriac seems a little far fetched but persevere… Celeriac adds luscious creaminess, a hint of something slightly aniseedy and if generations of Romanians are to believed, it reaches the parts other root vegetables can’t. To benefit most from its legendary properties Romanians suggest eating it raw and certainly combined with apples, walnuts and carrots and a little mayonnaise in the style of a French remoulade – the Romanian “cruditati” salad is winsome.

But with a little truffle oil added celeriac becomes a truly magical affair – the creamy celeriac giving great texture and the truffle oil giving an olfactory kick.

No special equipment is needed for this recipe. I try not to overboil the celeriac but it does need to be quite soft for this soup. If you feel very cheffy you can strain it through a sieve or a “chinois” – I probably should but life is short and the texture is pretty heavenly anyway. I do always make this soup with real stock – if you are going to invest in truffle oil then it deserves a bit of body.

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