Roasted pumpkin soup

Roasting vegetables is my favourite way to prepare them for making soup. The roasting process adds the caramelisation and brings out the natural sweetness in the vegetables. As autumn comes on, I usually start soup season with a simple pumpkin soup. It's a simple, uncomplicated soup I want to eat in Autumn as the weather starts to turn chilly.


Roasting the pumpkin first is my favourite way to make pumpkin soup and it produces so much more flavour compared with steaming or boiling it. As well as roasting the pumpkin, I also like to add a red onion and some garlic cloves with their skins on to the roasting tray. Roasted garlic is just heavenly! Unlike its raw sibling, roasted garlic brings a mellowed and delicate flavour without any of the raw garlic punch.


You can use vegetable or chicken stock to make this soup, however I just like to use plain water as I like the flavour of the vegetables coming through.

What soup do you like to make to mark the start of the cooler months? Is is a light broth based soup or a more substantial soup?

Roasted pumpkin soup
Serves 2

Ingredients:
Half a butternut pumpkin, peeled and cut into 4 cm chunks
1 tsp cumin
3 Tbs olive oil
1 small red onion, roughly chopped
6 cloves of garlic, left in their skin
2 cups water or vegetable stock
S&P

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Place the pumpkin to a baking tray lined with baking paper. Add the onion and unpeeled garlic.
3. Sprinkle the cumin over the pumpkin and onion. Add the olive oil and plenty of S&P.
4. Roast for approximately 40 minutes.
5. Remove the vegetables from the oven. Place the pumpkin and onion into a food processor. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of their skins and place into the food processor.
6. Add the water to the pumpkin and process until smooth.
7. Taste for seasoning and add S&P to taste.
8. Place the soup into a pot to heat.
9. Serve hot with crusty bread and a dollop of crème fraiche.