Any suggestions for spicy pumpkin soup?

Phil

Strange I thought I'd done one of these years ago ?

very basically...

brown onions,

add cumin, fennel, fenugreek, salt, pepper, chilli

add the pulp of the pumpkin (if you have carved it)

(or cut the pumpkin into strips, brush with a little olive oil,roast in oven first - if not craving it)

add the lot, maybe some tomtato

simmer right down... add corriander leaf and maybe some cream and serve

Steve

Hi Phil,

Is your pumpkin going straight to the kitchen after Halloween? :)

Thought I had, must never have bothered sending it ?

Curried Pumpkin Soup

Serves 10

Ingredients

3?-4kg Halloween Pumpkin (weight of the whole pumpkin, normal medium sized)

4 medium onions - finely sliced/diced

6 large carrots - course grated

2 tbsp tomato pur?e

2 tbsp garlic

1 large bunch of fresh corriander leaf

3 veg stockpot (or stock cubes)

• 2 tsp cumin seeds

• 2 tsp corriander seeds

• 1 tsp green cardamon pods

• 1 tsp fenugreek poweder (or a little more if using seeds)

• 3 whole black cardamons

• 2 tsp smoked paprika

• 1 tsp fennel seeds

• 3 star anise

• ? tsp ginger powder

• ? tsp cinnamon powder

• ?-1 tsp chilli flakes

• 1 tsp black pepper

• 1 tsp sea salt

Olive oil for frying

200ml of double cream

*grind all these ingredients together (I use a small electric mixer/grinder)

continued in next post

Steve

Method

Take the pumpkin and remove a "lid" from the top, scoop out the loose fibre and seeds (save the seeds for roasting if you like). Then using a strong spoon scrape the flesh out leaving about 1.5cm thick walls (if you are using it for halloween lantern).

In a large pan brown off the onions

Add the chopped up pumpkin flesh and stir in

add the carrots and mix, cook until softening slightly

add the spice mix and stir in well

add the garlic and tomato pur?e

Add the stockpots (or stock cubes)

Top up with about 2 litres of hot water

bring to boil and turn to a low simmer for a good hour or so.

Pur?e the soup using a stick blender (or your prefered method)

mix in the cream and cook in for a few minutes.

Serve with a good sprinkle of corriander leaf (and an extra swirl of cream)

Steve

click for picture

Great! Thanks!

I carved out a big pumpkin for the kids' lantern today, and resolved, this year, to use the carved out flesh in the kitchen.

My wife says she recalls French cream of pumpkin soup as bland, so we added spices in the onion mix, including (against my wishes) curry powder, which I rather disaprove of.

Anyway, it turned out pretty good.

I roasted the seeds, which are used as garnish in French pumpkin soup.

There are differences of view on whether to use the stringy bits inside. Elizabeth David says to chuck them, and the seeds. Last year, Saturday Kitchen said to cook the stringy bits. I fear that they're more sour than the flesh, though I'm not sure. Any views?

I found 11 recipes with pumpkin on this site, including one with pumpkin flowers, which i'll never have access to.

Since we now have several kilos of pumpkin to use up, I'm going to have a go at pumpkin fritters, from the Philippines.

Will try freezing the soup.

Phil

Hi Rajneesh

I find that the flesh of a pumpkin rots very quickly once you've done a mantern, and it's all blackened by the candle(s) inside. So it's best to do as Steve suggests, and cut out enough flesh to cook with, without allowing the walls of the lantern to become too thin as to collapse.

Sorry: I'm becoming a pumpkin bore!

Phil

I've just made some pumpkin chips, they cook very quickly, and with a little lemon pepper (Greenfields) sprinkled on them, is just perfect, you can still taste the pumpkin. IMHO, spices will swamp the flavour.

I like Pumpkin in most forms. It is one of the festive season bhaji in many northern Indian homes like ours. It can be made with Ripe Pumpkin or Green Pumpkin and generally served with Poories, Rasedar (with gravy) Aloo, Boondi raita and a seasonal vegetable.

Pumpkin Halva is also very tasty, worth a try, if you have surplus pumpkins.

Instead of pumpkin flowers, you can cook with courgette flowers, here is a list of edible flowers; http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/Edible%20Flowers.htm

I washed and toasted my seeds from this week?s pumpkin, but it is hard work peeling them. Perhaps that is why they are popular, they stop you from munching on too many nuts LOL!

Lapis, weren?t the chips too soggy? I never thought you could get anything crisp pout of pumpkin. I have known people to make savoury or sweet dumpling by adding some flour to mashed flesh of it, which are reasonably crisp. I have roasted them (slices) with their skins on.

OOhhhhhh ripe pumpkin bhaji with poories and boondi raita is making me droool,even more so with dry dates or tamarind chutney .....this is heaven!!!!!

Hi Mamta

I didn't get the bit about peeling the seeds; my wife and son have been eating them whole, with the husks, like they do with sunflower seeds. Is that a mistake?

Thanks for the link re edible flowers; we once had deep-fried, battered courgette flowers on a Greek island: nice. We also do a Chinese hot-and-sour soup which has re-constituted lilly stamens in it. But that's the sum total of our flower consumption.

Phil

I think pumpkin and butternut squash taste nicer when they are eaten raw. Once they have been cooked they taste bland IMO.

Oops! none of the links in my message above worked, I should have checked after posting the message!

"OOhhhhhh ripe pumpkin bhaji with poories and boondi raita is making me droool,even more so with dry dates or tamarind chutney .....this is heaven!!!!!"

You mean the one with sliced Chuaras Rajneesh, the really hard dry dates? Yes that one is very nice and is always made in our 'baniya' weddings. I must get one of my sisters to write down that recipe for me. I haven't made it for a while, am not sure of exact amounts.

Phil, all Indian and Chinese friends that I know, pick a seed and gently press on the pointed end of the seed with their teeth, in my case premolars, but you can use incisors too. The end splits open, you peel the hard skin off and eat the seed kernel. I have never, well almost never, seen anyone eating it with hard husk/kin. After washing, I roasted them in a hot oven, which I was using for something else, and left them in for about 10-12 minutes.

Now here is a thought; eating raw squash! I have never eaten raw pumpkin or squash. May be it will be nice grated and with some sort of dressing. I am not sure if it is safe for the stomach!

Steve,

You give a weight of 3?-4 kgs of pumpkin, is that the weight of the flesh or the whole pumpkin?

TC

What you can do is leave the seeds in the husks and drizzle them with olive oil and roast them until they turn brown. That way the husk becomes nice and crunchy instead of chewy.

Not safe for the stomach? How do you mean, Mamta? Is there something I should know? :o)

I only meant that I do not know if it is safe for eating raw. It probably is, but I do not know, have never seen anyone eating it raw yet.

weight of whole pumpkin, your average smaller sized pumpkin.... nothing I make really needs to be "exact" as long as its roughly ...

Steve

Hi Mamta, yes dry chuara chutney ...i love it, there is one in this site as well and i have tried it once.

Eating raw pumpkin....hmmmmm food for thought....seems like an invitation for stomach ache?...i would rather roast it.

Are you sure it is here Rajneesh? I can't find it and don't remember making it in UK. My mum and sisters make it though. I have asked my mum and sisters, let's hope one of them replies.

I just realised it is not there, you have Ginger and dry dates pickle. I took the idea from thre as well. The last time when i made tamarind chutney with "gur" i added dates to the mixture.

The one we are talking about i had that in India.......try to get that recipe, it shall be awsome.

Thanks for the tips about eating the roasted seeds!

Yesterday, I did spring onion/grated pumpkin fritters for the kids: even the French girl from next door liked them!

More fritters today for another French kid, then, tomorrow, pumpkin done in the oven with grated comt? cheese, with a spicy tomato sauce. After that, the pumpkin fest is over!

Phil

Grated pumpkin fritters idea sounds interesting Phil, I might give it a try. I will probably make it with besan (gram flour) though, with added carom seeds, chopped green chillies and coriander leaves. Actually, it might be quite nice as sweet fritters too, with plain flour and a bit of sugar and ground cardamoms, may be even a few raisins. What do you think Phil? How are you making yours?

Thanks Mamta for adding this - Pumpkin or Squash Seeds-How to Roast Them

Steve

You are welcome Steve!

Hello Mamta

I'm using a recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's 'Eastern Vegetarian Cooking': it's called 'Ukoy', and comes from the Philippibes. It calls for mung bean sprouts, which I don't have, grated pumpkin, and spring onions, shallow fried in batter. It's supposed to be eaten with a dipping sauce, which I must try.

Phil

Sounds interesting Phil, tell us how it comes. I have never heard of it.