Ultimate

One-Pot

Pumpkin Soup

Halloween is over, and we are now left with loads of pumpkins.

If you have a pumpkin that has not been carved - as we do here - why not try making this easiest soup, and it is so delicious and hearty too!

You can start the process with warming up your oven to 180 degrees Celsius, as the preparation is really simple and will not take you longer than 15 minutes. It really only depends on your veg peeling/chopping skills.

You will require a medium or large round pumpkin (Just check beforehand that your pumpkin fits inside your oven!).

Grab a pumpkin, the size of your pumpkin will define how many of other ingredients you will require. Cut the pumpkin open so that you have a small “lid”, like this.

Scoop the seeds out of the pumpkin with a spoon. Now you see the size of the cavity that you will have to fill in with vegetables. You can put the veggies right up to the top of your pumpkin “pot”.

Please don’t chuck the seeds into dustbin! If you don’t like to roast and eat the seeds yourself – leave them outside for the birds and small animals to benefit from them.

Now time for some fridge foraging. Any raw vegetables that you found will do for this recipe. This soup is a great way to use up any random leftover onions, stalks of celery, tomatoes, carrots, parsnips etc. that you would find problematic to use up otherwise.

This is what I had:

Time to assemble your pumpkin.

All you need to do is stuff your pumpkin pot with as many vegetables as you can fit inside and add your herbs/spices to your taste. I am adding fresh thyme, sage and rosemary, and powdered white pepper and turmeric.

Don’t forget salt.

If you have fresh herbs – this is great, but dried powdered spices will also do.

Wash all your ingredients and cut them in the chunks just so that they go inside your pumpkin. There is no need to be neat, as you will puree your soup at the end.

If your herbs are fresh – you can simply put them as the top layer into your pumpkin, they will give away their flavour and you can easily remove them out of your dish when cooked, before pureeing. You can dice your herbs in just as well, or use powdered dried herbs instead. 

When your pumpkin is full, add some liquid, as much as you can put in. It can be any stock that you have available, or just water. I had chicken stock made from a cube. 

Sit your pumpkin in an oven-proof tray/pot and put the “lid” on. Carefully transfer the tray into the hot oven and just leave it for at least an hour.

The cooking time will largely depend on the size of your pumpkin, the best way to check if it is ready is to pierce your pumpkin with a knife. If it comes in easy, without any resistance – your vegetables are ready.

Very carefully remove your pumpkin pot out of the oven.

You will see that your vegetables are all nice and soft and well cooked.

It is time to take the herbs out of our one-pot.

Now, we take a spoon and just peel the pumpkin skin off. This will be very easy when the pumpkin is cooked.

If you were baking your pumpkin in a deep pot, you can just leave all vegetables in it. I baked mine in a tray that is why I transferred all mass into a pot. Use the hand-held blender to puree your soup. At this phase you might need more stock to make the desired texture. You can also add cream to make your soup even more velvety and delicious. Otherwise add olive oil or butter.

If you added cream or butter, bring your soup to boil. And, your one-pot dish is ready!

You can pour excess into freezer-proof reusable containers or zip bags in portion sizes, sit them to cool down and then freeze.

Let’s decorate bowls with grated cheese and diced greens to taste and serve while hot!

I used grated parmesan, sweet paprika powder and chives for mine.

Hope you will enjoy this hearty, healthy and easy to make meal!

I certainly enjoyed mine, and loved the prep process which was great fun with almost no waste or washing up associated with cooking.