Pumpkin Soup – Convenient Food, My Way

/ October 30, 2015

Apparently the most important market for the food industry is so-called convenience food. People want to come home to a home-made dinner, but without the inconvenience of having to cook it. However, convenience food does not necessarily have to come out of a tin, or a plastic pack: sometimes the packaging is completely biodegradable. Take a pumpkin:pumpkins and squash

Not only does it come most amazingly wrapped, but you can even bake your pumpkin in its own skin! All that’s left to do is to spoon out the soft fflesh and discard the packaging, together with the seeds, in your compost bin. Mash, add a few spices and cream, and serve. How convenient is that?

The following recipe is a staple of Chilean cuisine: Crema de Zapallo, or Cream of Pumpkin Soup. In the markets in Santiago de Chile,  the stallholders will cut up pumpkins of all sizes and colours, using long and dangerous-looking knives.Pumpkin in Santiago market

The closest match in terms of flavour and texture here in the UK seems to be the Japanese kabocha squash, but, frankly, any edible pumpkin or mix of pumpkins and squashes will do. We used (clockwise from left): an edible pumpkin, a harlequin squash, and the aforementioned kabocha.Kabocha squash

This soup does not take long – ok, the pumpkins need an hour or more to cook, but they can be left to their own devices in the oven, so I don’t count that as prep time. From spooning out, mashing to plating takes less than 20 minutes. Now that’s my idea of a convenient dish!

roast pumpkin soup 1

Convenient Pumpkin Soup – Crema de Zapallo (serves 6)

  • 2 kg pumpkin or squash
  • 1 leek, only the white part
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 1 tbs vegetable oil
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp sweet paprika powder
  • parsley, finely chopped
  • 100ml vegetable stock, depending on the consistency of the pumpkin
  • 100ml milk
  • 300ml single cream
  • salt and pepper, to taste
  • pumpkin seeds, to taste

Heat the oven to 180C / 350F. Place the pumpkins into the hot oven and ignore for at least one hour. Once you can easily stab them with a fork you can remove them – our larger pumpkin needed another 30 minutes.spooning out pumpkin 1

Leave them to cool a little before cutting off the top and spooning out the soft mushy flesh. Collect the flesh in a medium-sized caserole and discard the seeds and skin.pumpkin puree

roast pumpkin soupIn a medium-sized pan, fry the finely chopped leek and garlic until soft; add a little water if necessary, 2-3 tbs or so, to prevent it from browning. Using a hand-held blender, blend the pumpkin puree, the leek and the garlic until smooth. Place the pot over a medium heat and add the spices, oregano, vegetable stock and the milk. Stir and add half of the cream, then adjust the liquid until you get a consisteny you like.

Roast the pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan until they release their wonderful smell. Before serving, add the remaining cream and decorate with the parsley and the pumpkin seeds.

pumpkin soup and hungry children

Bloggers will recognise the desperate and blurred family members in the background of this uncropped picture, who are impatiently waiting for mummy to take the bleeding picture and be done. After all, we need to get ready for the real pumpkin feast!Halloween

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30 thoughts on “Pumpkin Soup – Convenient Food, My Way”

  1. Great idea to use a mixture of squashes – I make a good butternut soup! Your recipe sounds really good with the seeds on top. We always toast and season them and east as a snack. Great looking pumpkins – love the bat – did you carve them???

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    • We did – using the internet for inspiration, I have to admit … The squashes looked too interesting not to buy the whole selection, but that little dark green runt of a squash took the top prize!

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  9. That looks like my idea of convenience food too – honestly, some meals can be made from scratch with less fuss than opening a packet – and much, MUCH less waste too. Plus the big advantage of knowing EXACTLY what has gone into them!

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  11. Gorgeous looking soup, and I’ll have to agree with the convenience foods too. I was in England the last 2 weeks visiting my Mum and family and I was amazed at the Halloween displays all over the supermarkets, all the pumpkins, squashes etc. When I lived in England in the 70’s, nobody even celebrated Halloween, it’s amazing how much is carried over from across the pond eh?

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  13. I absolutely agree with you on the convenience food! And if you are around there are so many dishes that just keeps cooking away letting you do other things, truly convenient.
    The soup looks beautiful and absolutely delicious.
    I didn’t carv any pumpkins this year and wish I had, they are so festive 🙂

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    • I had proper pumpkin envy today: my friend has a ‘sick’ pumpkin on her garden wall, with a proper trail of the innards running down all the way onto the street! Sick, innit?

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