Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Roasted Pumpkin Soup : IHCC

"In Season", is our theme for this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC), where we are currently cooking from Donna Hay's recipes. 

In my corner of the world, most of our local produce are available all-year round! We do not have the four seasons in Malaysia, being a sunny tropical country with warm humid climate, our produce of veggies and fruits are abundant, we can easily buy our veggies and fruits anytime of the year! Hence, we do not freeze our fruits and veggies. Except for some varieties of fruits like durian, and mangosteen, just to name a couple, which are seasonal, most of our other fruits can be found throughout the year. 

For this week's theme, In Season, I have chosen pumpkin, which is available the whole year round, yes, we are very lucky indeed! But in some countries where it is fall season right now, pumpkins are one of the most common winter squash that are in season. 


Creamy pumpkin soup.

I love eating pumpkin. Especially in stir-fried dishes and another way of enjoying it, roasted with some spices, which I've learnt when I was cooking from Yotam Ottolenghi's recipes. I really like eating a bowl of warm pumpkin soup, but have never made it at home before, would usually have it when eating out. In fact, so far I've made creamy soup like this only once, which was years ago, and it was a mixture of some veggies and potatoes. 


This recipe uses a whole pumpkin, cut into half, remove the seeds, drizzle with some olive oil and salt. Another ingredient is onions! Recipe calls for 1 onion, which I have used about 3 medium-sized ones. Do not remove the skin, place them alongside the pumpkin and roast them together in the same roasting tray about 50-60 minutes until the pumpkins and onions are soft and tender.

Scoop out the pumpkin into a blender. Scoop the onion flesh away,which is very soft,  from the outer skin and place it in the blender together with the pumpkin. Add about 1 cup of chicken stock and blend until smooth. You may need to do two batches. Place the pureed mixture into a saucepan, add remaining stock, cream, honey, and place over medium heat until heated through. Serve with sour cream, which I have replaced with homemade yoghurt. 


This is a bowl of delicious Roasted Pumpkin Soup. The soup is so "pumpkin-ny-sweet and onion-ny-sweet". I have actually forgotten to add in the honey, but I think it does not really need it, as it is already veggie-sweet from both the pumpkin and the onions. My kids love this soup. The recipe makes quite a lot, it says serves 4, but this could easily feed 8! We have some leftovers, and they were asking for it the next day. Simply rewarm the soup, add a couple of tablespoons of hot water as it has thicken a little, and it is just as good!


Roasted Pumpkin Soup
(adapted from the home channel, Donna Hay)
1 x 2kg whole butternut pumpkin
1 onion
olive oil, for drizzling
sea salt
3-1/2 cups (875) chicken stock
1 cup (250 ml) single (pouring) cream
1 tablespoon honey
sour cream, to serve

  1. Preheat oven to 220C (425F). Cut the pumpkin in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Place the pumpkin, cut-side up, and onion on a baking tray.
  2. Drizzle with a little oil and sprinkle with salt.
  3. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until the pumpkin is just soft and starting to brown.
  4. Scoop the pumpkin out of the skin into a blender.
  5. Scoop the onion flesh away from its skin and add to the blender.
  6. Add 1 cup (250ml) of the chicken stock and blend until smooth.
  7. Pour the mixture into a saucepan, add remaining stock, cream and honey.
  8. Place over medium heat until soup is heated through.
  9. Serve with sour cream.

Drop by I Heart Cooking Clubs (IHCC) to see what seasonal yummies the others are cooking.

IHCC Donna Hay Badge resized


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29 comments:

  1. It taste very nice a soup like this, in days so cold like we have, in this moment!
    Kisses

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  2. Your pumpkin soup looks delicious...and so very much in season here for sure. I am very jealous of you having fresh fruits and vegetables all year long...definitely not the case where I live and importing them just isn't the same as far as freshness goes. Great choice for this week!

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  3. Butternut is my favourite vegetable and I agree it makes such a lovely creamy soup perfect for those cold wintery nights.

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  4. I love pumpkin including soup but not my family. Therefore I only use pumpkin in baking and this way they can't really trace the pumpkin flavour :P

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  5. How lucky are you to have an abundance of fruits and vegetables all year long. Very cool indeed!

    Not only have I never made Pumpkin Soup, Joyce. I have never even tasted it! My daughter makes Butternut Squash & Apple Soup and puts it a pumpkin shell (she uses the pumpkin for muffins and such) and my grandkids love it. I must tell her to try roasting the pumpkin and using it for Pumpkin Soup.

    Thanks for sharing, Joyce, I sure could use some soup right now. It's chilly outside, heck, it's downright cold out!

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  6. I love pumpkn soup - I add nutmeg to mine usually. Cheers from Carole's Chatter

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  7. Hi Joye , never had pumpkin soup , so this is a must try , looks delicious thanks for sharing :)

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  8. I guess this week was a bit of a challenge for you since you could really pick just about anything! Pumpkin soup sounds good--I don't think I've ever had it. If I can get my dish made it will be sweet potatoes for me.
    Thank you for stopping in and linking, Joyce!

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  9. oh wow! What a delicious looking soup. I love how smooth it is and the warm flavors.

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  10. my tummy already feel warm with that soup.... comfort food in this cold weather for me!

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  11. Soup looks yummy!!!

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  12. Love pumpkin soup and this looks so good! :)

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  13. I love pumpkin soup, this must be very yummy!

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  14. How lucky you are to have so much produce in season all the time!

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  15. I am a HUGE fan of smooth creamy pumpkin soups!

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  16. Roasting the pumpkin before pureeing it into soup must give it such great flavor!

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  17. so far i also just tried the creamy type and not roasted one. i'm not sure but i may not like the honey addition in my soup...btw, dont know why funny that i couldnt leave a comment in your pumpkin rolls..

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  18. Joyce, I know I will love this pumpkin soup because I am a pumpkin lover! Looks like this is another thing that we have in common :)

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  19. Joyce, I made a sweet potato soup and I am guessing, there is a similarity in flavor. I made it because it is served with goat cheese and that intrigued me. The soup was fantastic. I bet yours was too. I like the idea of the roasted pumpkin.

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  20. Joyce you are so lucky to have such a wonderful abundance of produce all year round, though there is something to be said for the anticipation of waiting for your favourite vegetable to come into season. This soup looks delicious - love the depth of flavour which must come from roasting the pumpkin and onions.

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  21. Lovely looking soup, perfect for a wet and chilly autumn day (which is what it is here!)

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  22. I love pumpkin soup too. In India, especially in Mumbai, we get most of the vegetables all round the year too. Of course there are many, like parsnip, that is not available here. But no complaints:-).

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  23. I love pumpkin and use it in both savory and sweet dishes often. In fact, I have a tea cake in the oven right now where I used pumpkin puree. This is such a creamy comforting soup and would be great in winter as the temperatures are starting to drop now here in NY

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  24. Beautiful Joyce! You may even convert me to pumpkin soup with this one…love the idea of roasting the onions with the pumpkin :)

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  25. A nice soup I would like to have it everyday! Thanks for sharing your tip on the onion part. It definitely make the soup more flavouful!

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  26. I just love what roasting does to pumpkin and the onion too. This looks so creamy and good! Thanks for sharing it with Souper Sundays and for linking it to the 12 Weeks of Winter Squash event too! ;-)

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  27. You are very luck to live in such a place where everything is in season all the time! Right now we are having colder weather and pumpkin is definitely very much in season here. This soup looks gorgeous with a dollop of your homemade yogurt on top. Your children sound like very good eaters! I can never get my children to try anything pumpkin.

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