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.

Roast pumpkin, spinach & dukkah salad

Yesterday I wrote about the macadamia and lemon myrtle dukkah I had made. This was a real winner when added to bread dipped in olive oil. It was a real treat to have this with an end of day glass of wine.

The traditional dukkah version can be amended by replacing the combinations of nuts or spices used and you can vary the quantities of these to your particular taste. As well as a really tasty dip to dunk your bread into, dukkah can be used as an ingredient itself in any number of dishes. Lamb, chicken or fish with a dukkah crust, potatoes fried in olive oil, garlic and dukkah, a succulent roast of butterflied meat with a dukkah, breadcrumb and mushroom stuffing in the centre...but I digress!


I decided to use the dukkah I'd made in a simple salad of sweet roasted pumpkin, red capsicum and spinach. If I wanted to make this a more substantial salad, I would normally also add some chickpeas as well as other roasted vegetables like zuchinni, eggplant and carrot. As this was a side dish to a chicken main, I wanted to keep it simple.

As well as the vegetables, the addition of a couple of heaped tablespoons of the dukkah gave this salad a great texture and flavour. The lemon myrtle combined with the lemon juice in the dressing delivered a zingy kick and freshness.


I ate the leftover salad for lunch the next day and it was delicious as the dukkah and dressing had imparted even more flavour. This is a handy salad if you needed to make one ahead of time or make it in a larger quantity to eat later.

Roast pumpkin, spinach & dukkah salad
Ingredients:
½ butternut pumpkin, cut into half inch cubes
(Optional: 1 small zucchini, ½ eggplant, 1 large carrot cubed)
100g baby spinach
(Optional: 120g canned chickpeas, rinsed)
1 small capsicum, chopped
2 heaped Tbs dukkah of your choice
1 Tbs olive oil
S&P
Dressing:
Juice of 1 lemon
3 Tbs olive oil
2 tsp honey
S&P

1. Preheat oven to 180C
2. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place pumpkin and any other vegetables to be roasted on the tray. Drizzle over the olive oil and add S&P to taste. Mix well. Bake for 30 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through. Remove from the oven and place vegetables into a salad bowl.
3. To vegetables, add chickpeas if using, capsicum, dukkah and spinach.
4. To make the dressing, whisk together all the dressing ingredients ensuring the honey is dissolved in the dressing. Add the dressing to the salad while the roast vegetables are still warm. Serve.