The Garden of Eaden: HOW TO MAKE SPICY PUMPKIN SOUP

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Come the halloween season and the shops are full of pumpkins. Small ones, humundous ones - even freaky coloured ones, but they aren't all just for cutting up to make scarey faces! Choose a culinary variety and you can produce one of the most beautifully flavoured soups you've ever tasted!

I love this recipe and not for the obvious reason. I love it because the this recipe seemed so simple that when I first tried it that I was sure that it was going to end up tasting bland and weak. But I was so, so wrong. It ended up as one of the most delicious soups I have ever made!

Ingredients

1 x medium sized pumpkin approximately 1kg

1 x large onion

3 x sticks of celery

1 x tin of chopped tomatoes

1/2 a swede or 2 x medium potatoes

50grams of butter

1 litre of vegetable or chicken stock

1 level tsp of cumin

1/2 level tsp of chili powder or flakes

In addition you can also add 4 x rashers of bacon and/or 100ml of single cream

Peel and roughly chop the onion, then melt the butter in a large, heavy-based saucepan and gently cook the onion on a low heat until soft and translucent. Meanwhile, peel the pumpkin, discarding all the stringy bits and the seeds.

Chop the pumpkin into rough cubes and add to the onions. Cook until the pumpkin is golden brown at the edges, then add the stock.

Peel and chop the potatoes/swedes, and along with the copped celery - chuck into the pan along with the tomatoes, cumin and chili powder/flakes.

Bring to the boil then leave to simmer for 20 minutes or so until the pumpkin, is tender.

If you are using the bacon in this recipe, fry it off until it is crisp. Cool a little then cut up with scissors into small pieces. Whizz the soup in a blender or food processor until it runsl smooth. the, if you are using it, pour in the cream and taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper as necessary. Return to the pan, bring almost to the boil and then serve, piping hot, with the bacon bits scattered on top.

Serve with some freshly buttered, oven warmed bread. Absolutely delicious!

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