Pumpkin Soup

the source of our pumpkin

Jamie Oliver's Pumpkin and Rice Soup With Coconut Milk

Lana's Version


'Tis the season for pumpkins and since we had gotten one from a pumpkin stand a while ago, we decided to....no, not to carve it into a Jack-O-Lantern, which would have been cool, since "Halloween" does not exist in Switzerland....but to make pumpkin soup out of it.




I had never made soup of any kind in my life before and neither had my husband. As much as i love to cook, i am not creative when it comes to that, so i always follow existing recipes or modify them a bit. Last Christmas, my very good friends gave me a cookbook as a present. But not just any cookbook, Jamie Oliver's "Essen Ist Fertig" which translates into "food is ready" but i'm sure it's called something else in English. Anyways, i admire Jamie a great deal for two major reasons. First, he's a Brit AND a great chef, which is a contradiction in itself, but that is exactly why he's so successful. And second, his recipes are very easy to follow, do not include "fancy-schmancy" hard-to-find ingredients, and take no time to prepare.



So, hubby and i looked through Jamie's book and found a recipe for pumpkin soup. With a few modifications on my part, it turned out to be the best soup we've ever eaten. No joke and no showing off. Seems James, hubby and i make a great cooking team. We even ate the soup in the original pumpkin crust which we used as bowls as suggested by Jamie. Delicious!



As requested by a friend of mine, i am including both recipes in this post. Jamie's original and my modified one. Try it, friend, and let me know how it goes!



Jamie's Pumpkin Soup Recipe: see photo


Lana's Pumpkin Soup:


In a soup pot, saute onions, garlic, ginger and lemon grass in olive oil with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, oregano and a teaspoon of soya sauce. Add 3 cups (or however many you want) of chicken/vegetable bullion and stir everything up from the bottom of the pot. Bring to boil. Add pumpkin cubes and chopped carrots. Cook for about 15 min or until pumpkin and carrots are soft. Remove from heat. Add 1 cup coconut milk and blend it all together. Sprinkle some freshly chopped parsley on top. Serve with pumpernickel or whole wheat bread and full bodied shiraz wine and enjoy!




Tip: cut the pumpkin in half cross-section, take out most of the pumpkin meat, spread a bit of butter/margarine along the inside and bake in oven for about 15 min, then use pumpkin halves as soup bowles! And when you get to the bottom, scoop out some more butter-roasted pumpkin meat from the bottom. Yum!



Note: Jamie uses rice in his soup which i substitute with carrots, only because my husband is not a rice fan.