Winter is setting in! Warm, velvety and simple to make, pumpkin soup is your cold-weather friend that the whole family can enjoy. By adding chickpeas you turn soup into dinner. Add a few native ingredients and it is even better! Remember, if you don't have the native ingredients listed below switch it over for something you do have. You can always add a touch of wattleseed, desert lime and saltbush.
1.2kg butternut pumpkin
1 onion, unpeeled, halved
1 tomato, halved
4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
3 tbsp olive oil
1 fresh red chilli
400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
750ml vegetable stock
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp Anise Myrtle
2 tsp rose harissa, plus extra to serve
½ cup parsley or coriander sprigs
Pepperberry to taste
1. Heat oven to 180C fan-forced. Roughly chop the pumpkin (no need to peel), and arrange with onion, tomato and garlic on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
2. Coat the vegetables with 2 tbsp olive oil, scatter with sea salt and pepperberry and bake for 45-55 minutes, removing the tomato and garlic, and turning the pumpkin after 30 minutes. Transfer vegetables to a chopping board until cool enough to handle.
3. Toss the chilli and 2 tbsp of the chickpeas in remaining olive oil and bake for 20 minutes (use the same tray to save on dishes).
4. In the meantime, squeeze the garlic cloves out of the skins, and discard onion skins and pumpkin skins and seeds. Roughly chop the vegetables, and tip into a large saucepan.
5. Add vegetable stock, tomato paste, harissa, remaining chickpeas, sea salt, anise myrtle and pepperberry and bring to the boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes.
6. Blend the soup in batches in a food processor, thermomix or blender until smooth and velvety, and serve in warm bowls. Arrange chilli on top with crisped chickpeas, extra harissa and herbs. For an extra crunch, top with Australian Bush Dukkah
Tips
Butternut pumpkin is perfect for this recipe, or mix it up with Japanese pumpkin. Bake with the skin on, then peel later.
When you cook pumpkin in water, the liquid dilutes the flavour. When you cook pumpkin in the oven, you reduce the water content, intensifying the natural flavour.
Swap out spicy merguez or chorizo sausages for frankfurts, kofta, pan-roasted mushrooms or grilled eggplant.
Original recipe from Good Food.com
Comments
2 comments
I want the book this is beautiful food
This recipe is sensational! Roast pumpkin soup has always been one of my absolute favourites, but the addition of these indigenous ingredients elevates it to the next level. The flavour profile is so complex and amazing…simply delicious!!!