Classic squash and pumpkin soup, with cobwebs
Welcome in Autumn with a bowl of comforting squash and pumpkin soup. Or dish it up in real pumpkin shells for Halloween dinner.This recipe has fresh vegetables along with the butternut squash and pumpkin pieces – though you can use pumpkin puree if you prefer – along with aromatic rosemary leaves.Add in some coconut milk to make it extra creamy and you can even serve them in small pumpkin shells with special homemade sour cream cobwebs!
Servings 6 bowls
Ingredients
Squash and pumpkin soup
- 1 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion diced
- 1 garlic clove minced
- 1 sprig rosemary leaves only, chopped
- 1 carrot peeled and chopped
- 1 celery stick chopped
- 700 grams butternut squash cubes
- 300 grams fresh pumpkin pieces
- 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
- 150 mls coconut milk (optional)
- coriander leaves to garnish
Pumpkin shell and cobweb presentation
- 4 small baking pumpkins (these are in addition to the pumpkin needed for the soup above)
- 100 mls sour cream
Instructions
Squash and pumpkin soup
- Peel and chop your onion, carrot, celery, rosemary leaves, pumpkin flesh and butternut squash. Mince the garlic clove.
- Take a large saucepan and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil.
- Set to a low heat and add in your onion and garlic. Cook for 1-2 minutes until soft.
- Add in your chopped rosemary leaves and cook for another minute.
- Add in your chopped celery, carrot, butternut squash and pumpkin pieces. Heat for 3-4 minutes.
- Pour in your chicken stock and bring it to the boil.
- Simmer for 30 minutes, topping up with a little water if necessary.
- When it’s ready, blend the soup with a handheld blender or by transferring it to a heatproof mixer.
- Add enough of the water to the soup to reach your desired consistency or add 150 mls coconut milk if you like it to be creamy.
- Scatter on coriander leaves to serve, or present your soup in mini pumpkin shells (see below).
Pumpkin shells
- Cut the tops off of you small pumpkins with a sharp knife, and remove the seeds and pulp with a spoon.
- You can either keep the pumpkin shells raw or cook them on a baking tray in an oven at 180°C (350°F) fan setting for about 20 minutes with the tops off.
- When they’re ready, fill the shells with the squash and pumpkin soup.
Sour cream 'cobwebs'
- First place sour cream in a piping tool or in a plastic sandwich bag with a small 3mm corner snipped off.
- Squeeze it out over the soup bowl so that it makes a series of circles, one inside the other.
- Start with a large circle near the edge of your bowl or pumpkin shell. Then make a smaller one inside that and a smaller one insider that, working your way to the middle.
- Make as many circles as you can, without them overlapping. You should end up with a very small circle in the middle.
- Take a toothpick and start with that small circle in the middle. Make a straight line from that circle, out to the edge of the bowl or pumpkin shell, pulling past all the other circles as you do so.
- Repeat this for a further 5 lines. You want to have 6 evenly spaced ‘lines’ out from the middle.