DAY TWENTY: 'Surprise me Saturday' pumpkin cider soup

Breaking away from my Vegan MoFo 'Oatober' for another surprise recipe!

This year I was determined to get in on the act…full throttle pumpkin recipes!  Starting with this soup…

I give full credit to Able and Cole for this recipe as it was they who tempted me to give it a try and enter it in their photography competition. I had to make a little vegan adjustment and modify the proportions of ingredients a bit as the pumpkin I bought must have been a lot smaller than intended by their recipe and so therefore the remaining ingredients needed reducing to match. Either way it was a simple, subtle, silky smooth and delicious soup; the perfect start for my winter soup quest.

One thing I really loved about this recipe was that it cooked in its own ‘bowl’,  mad a great centrepiece to serve at the table. I made sure nothing went to waste and once the bowl was empty of soup and had cooled, I peeled away the skin and pureed the flesh to freeze for future baking experiments.

As a ‘winter soup quest’ I've decided that I’m going to trial a lot of soups over the next few months and to go along wide these experiments I also want to have a go at making lots of different types of ‘breads’, I use that in the loosest possible sense to mean ‘something I can dip in a soup’. Most of my experiments in the bread department will also be gluten free so it will be an interesting challenge since its one area I have yet to gain much experience. My trusty simple flatbread is still my everyday go-to recipe and I need to break out of my bubble!

Recipe: pumpkin soup

Serves 2

Ingredients

Small/medium pumpkin (approx. 1kg weight)

1 tsp coconut oil/olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

200ml cider (I used pear and ginger cider)

Approx. 200ml hot vegetable stock

Pinch vanilla powder/paste

¼ tsp chilli powder

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

a swirl of vegan yoghurt or cream to serve (optional)

Method

Chop the top off the pumpkin. Remove the seeds. Carve/scoop out as much of the flesh as possible using a strong spoon and knife, I had around 3 packed cups full. Finely chop the flesh. Set aside. Preheat oven to 200C.

Place a lidded pan over medium heat. Add oil and when its hot add onion and a pinch of salt. Cook slowly for approx. 5 minutes until the onions are soft. Fold in the pumpkin. Cover. Let the pumpkin sweat down on low heat until it’s mushy approx. 20 minutes.

Remove lid. Stir in vanilla, cinnamon and chilli. Cook for a moment. Slowly stir in the cider. Add enough stock to get soup to ‘thick cream’ consistency.

Puree the mixture. Pour the soup into the scooped out pumpkin. Bake the pumpkin for approx. 30 mins, until the pumpkin is just tender and soup is bubbly.

Add more stock if the soup is too thick (mine was fine). Serve into bowls with Gluten free flatbread.

Note: the skin on the pumpkin should be pulling away from the flesh and can be ‘peeled’ very easily. The flesh from the pumpkin bowl can be pureed and frozen for future cooking/baking experiments!

What Vegan MOFO means to me.

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.