Seasonal Soup

I've been wanting to make pumpkin soup since my parents started growing them in the alotment this summer. Today I finally mustered up the surplus energy.

Spent about two hours making it in my parents kitchen. And I can tell you, working in someone elses kitchen is always a challenge. I managed to pull it all together, though.

I will be making this again, and again ... sooo good.

The soup tastes delicious with a dollop of yoghurt and a swirl of olive oil, or like I just ate it: with a pile of gremolata. 

Pumpkin Soup with Herb and Walnut Gremolata

The soup:

Half a football sized pumpkin
One big onion
One whole bulb of garlic
One tablespoon of sugar
Organic stock cube(s)
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Chilli/Cayenne pepper

Dice the onion and garlic and sweat off in a good clunk of olive oil in a big pot. Cut and peel the pumkin into thumb-sized chunks and add to the now glossy onions. Stir so that the chinks are covered in oil and onion/garlic. Add the sugar and a little salt and pepper.

Here comes the magic. Put a lid on the pot while still keeping the temp on a medium to high heat. The pumpkin will caramelise and the lid will keep the steam in so that the pumpkin releases its own juices. This process takes about 20 minutes and in the end you have a pumkin mush.

Run through a blender into fine puré and add back to the pot. Now is the flavouring stage. It amazes me how much flavour the vegetable combo gives, but you'll need some stock. I cheated and used a few organic stock cubes (but if I had some I would use some home made, or bought, stock). And add at least the same amount of water as puré. It really depends on how thick you like your soup. Heat up.

At this point I like to season a little more. With chilli/cayenne or just pepper. And here it's up to you if you want to add some cream to the soup.

The gremolata:

A handful of walnuts
A handful of herbs, I used parsley and rosemary
A good chunk of crusty old bread
Two cloves of garlic
Olive oil
Lemon zest
Salt
Pepper

Add herbs, garlic and lemon zest to a blender and whizz. Add olive oil and nuts. This turns the mixture into a kind of pesto. Add the bread in chunks and whizz untill the bits are crumbly but not to small. Spread out on a tray, and bake in oven for 10 minutes on 220 degrees. Stir if needed and turn off oven to let your crumbs dry out.