Pamela’s perfect pumpkin soup recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Starters and Soups | 23 comments
Photo: Pumpkin on windowsill
“Don’t you just love the look of abject fear that appears on the faces of shop girls or fellow shoppers, when they ask if you are making a lantern for Hallow’een and you reply that you are, in fact, going to eat it!” Wrote my friend Pamela.
“I made soup with half of mine and will be making more with the other half this evening. Using what I had in – i.e. what was reduced for a quick sale or from the Somerfield basics range – I used spring onions, chilli, garlic, a green pepper, celery salt (which I love in a cheese butty) because I forgot to put celery in as I had planned, sweated all of that slowly before adding stock and cooking it.
However, the real secret of my success on this soup was adding some thin slices of Chorizo to the mug when I served it – although it was also excellent without… I also like to finely grate cheese into my soup like the French do….”
I was instantly seduced – the combination of ingredients sounded superb.
“Can I put this up on the blog?”
“You are welcome to use my pumpkin soup method on the blog. I made some more yesterday as I had the other half of my pumpkin to use up. It is even better. I added 3 sticks of celery this time and two chillies including some of the seeds so it is a real sinus clean out without leaving your mouth on fire. I also added a small pinch of smoked paprika which gives the kind of flavour that the chorizo added without the meat for any veggies out there.”
All our recipes are tried and tested. They have to be good to appear on the blog. Without exact amounts we had to experiment a bit and although we were more conservative on the chilli front, I hope that we’ve made a similar soup to the one that pleased Pamela.
It certainly tastes wonderful. Far more complex flavours than Clare’s excellent Cream of Pumpkin Soup recipe. I’d definitely use Pamela’s for a dinner party any day. And as I’m a tweaker I couldn’t resist adding some extra ingredients – some tomatoes that needed using up, lemon juice rather than salt and a quarter teaspoon of tarragon.
Thank you Pamela – I’m already looking forward to lunch today and we haven’t even had breakfast yet.
Pamela’s perfect pumpkin soup recipe
Ingredients:
700g of peeled chopped pumpkin (wash and retain the seeds to dry for a nutty topping or snack)
3 sticks of celery sliced fine
2 continental spring onions – sliced (the chunky ones)
2 cloves of garlic chopped fine
Half a tsp of smoked paprika
1 green bell pepper (seeds removed and chopped)
1 medium chilli chopped fine (include some seeds if you want a more fiery soup)
1 tbsp of tomato puree
25g of butter
2 tablespoons of olive oil
500ml of stock made with water and 2 tsp of vegetable stock powder
Half a tsp of celery salt
200g of tomatoes
Quarter tsp of dried tarragon
1 tsp of lemon juice/salt to taste
Sliced chorizo to serve (optional)
Finely grated cheddar cheese to serve (optional)
Method:
Melt the butter and olive oil in a large heavy bottomed saucepan.
Add the garlic, red chilli, green pepper, tomatoes, spring onion, pumpkin, diced selery and sweat these for half an hour over a low heat (lid on) stirring occasionally.
Add the stock, tomato puree, dried tarragon, celery salt and simmer gently until the vegetables are soft (lid off).
Puree the soup – I used my stick blender
Serve with a sprinkle of chorizo/dried pumpkin seeds/finely grated cheese.
Leave a reply
Hi Pamela
The soup is so good that I bought another pumpkin at the weekend!
Hi Maggie
Suky says (above) that some of the big pumpkins are not suitable for cooking as they are bred for carving. If the pumpkins are small they should be fine.
hmmm – sounds good. I wonder if I can recycle the boys’ lanterns (yes, small pumpkins) before they start to go slushy and grow that furry grey mould… They still look pretty good on the inside!
Hello Fiona, glad my pumpkin soup is going down well. I had only bought a small pumpkin as there is only so much one person can eat! I’m interpreting for my sister in France at the moment (being pushed way out of my comfort zone!)and went to the market in St Julien today to find they were selling chunks of various varieties of different pumpkins. I bought a large slice but I’m not sure I’ll have time to make soup for my sister as I’m flying home tomorrow. I know she won’t waste it though. If I do make soup tomorrow morning it will be different again as I don’t think she has all my ingredients in. We are celebrating being able to find the shortest route to and from the new school.
Hi Suky
I didn’t know that so thanks for the tip. I’ve only ever bought small ones – to try making some soup.
Hi Alex
We really enjoyed Pamela’s soup – it’s a cracker.
Hi Aunty Ruth
Thank you so much for this recipe. It sounds glorious.
Hi Tamara
We dried out squash seeds in the summer and they were delicious so we did the same with pumpkin seeds. These took much longer. At the first attempt they were chewy so we put them on a baking tray in the oven when we were heating up some pizza’s and after a few minutes they started popping so the kernels were easy to harvest. The ones that didn’t pop were tasty to. However you need to move them to an airtight container quickly once they have cooled as they soften and become chewy again after a few hours.
Sounds tasty, I have not made pumpkin soup in a while. It used to be tradition for my mum’s Halloween party, I’d argue with my husband which pumpkin I could use to serve the soup from and which he would get to carve. Think I’ll give it a go again this weekend.
The seeds I have never got to grips with though, when you buy them ready done it’s only the very centre of the kernel that you eat, I have tried drying them out and popping the kernel out but it takes so long I wondering if I am doing it right. Any suggestions?
i sweat a little cinnamon stick with onions when making pumpkin soup. it gives a lovely little kick without too much heat.
Was wondering what to do for supper… YUM!
Thought you might like my version which I make with butternut squash, but I’m sure would work equally well with pumpkin:
1. Roast the squash cut in half in medium oven, having oiled the tray with olive oil.
2. Chop a couple of large onions & some garlic to taste & sweat slowly in oil or butter & a sprinkling of salt.
3. When soft & transluscent add the scooped out roasted squash flesh & some good veg or chicken stock & simmer for a few minutes.
4. Blitz until smooth & velvety & add a big dollop of creme fraiche or sour cream plus a splash of tabasco to taste & stir until well combined – this lifts a rather sweet soup but doesn’t make it hot & spicy (unless you want to!)
5. Adjust the consistency with stock to taste (my lot like it almost “Sliceable”) & serve with warm crusty bread
Off to the kitchen now!
i have made this soup today using up all my bits and pieces and half a home grown crown prince pumpkin i had to add more stock as we dont like it too thick it was delicious thankyou fiona.carole
Oh, I’m gutted I’ve just eaten my lunch! Must find a small pumpkin to make some for tomorrow…
Sounds wonderful, I love soups that use up all the odds & sods in the bottom of the veg rack and fridge:)
Just a note of caution tho’. Biiiiigg pumpkins sold specially for carving do not make good eating. They are bred to be tough and stringy so they last a long time and have very little flavour at best. At worst they are musty and bitter. Every year at Sainsburys I get someone bringing one back ‘cos it tasted bad and I have to point out the words ‘not suitable for eating’ :0