Boil the pumpkin in a pan and you get a watery, bland soup. Roasted at 200 degrees, the pumpkin caramelises its own sugars, its excess water evaporates and the soup gains a depth that boiling cannot reach. It costs twenty extra minutes and it is worth them.
Ingredients
For frying off
For the soup
For the top
Method
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Heat the oven
Heat the oven to 200 degrees, top and bottom.
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Roast the vegetables
Spread the pumpkin, carrot and onion on a tray and toss with olive oil. Roast for 35 minutes, until the edges are browned.
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Transfer to a pan
Tip the roasted vegetables into a pan and add the hot water.
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Spice it
Add the ginger, cinnamon and salt and simmer for 5 minutes.
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Blend
Blend with a hand blender until completely smooth. Pumpkin is fibrous, so this can take a minute.
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Finish with cream
Stir in the cream and heat without boiling. Serve with pumpkin seeds.
Tips
- Go easy on the cinnamon. A quarter teaspoon leaves a warmth in the background; more turns the soup into a dessert.
- If the pumpkin is very watery, give it 5 more minutes in the oven; there should be no liquid left on the tray.
- To make it vegan, swap the cream for coconut milk, which goes very well with the ginger.
- Spread the pumpkin out on the tray. Pieces sitting on top of each other steam rather than roast.
Nutrition
Values are per serving and approximate.