Thermomix Adventures – Pumpkin Soup

After months and months of deliberation, I finally caved and bought a Thermomix. It means that I can streamline my kitchen from several appliances (Kitchenaid, blender, food processor) and I’m loving it so far.

Easiest way to tell you is with my pumpkin soup. Now, sure, you can make pumpkin soup the way I have always made it. But if you look at my earlier post, blending it with a immersion blender, purees, and if I wanted that incredibly silky texture you get in restaurants, you sieve it – if you can be bothered.

Or….you can make it all in the Thermomix. One bowl, that chops and sautees the onions, then cooks the pumpkin and then blends it to a smoothness that’s hard to describe. Well, I guess you can see from the photo. It’s really quite amazing. And the addition of raw cashews makes the soup rich and creamy without the addition of any dairy. From start to finish in 20 minutes.

I’m trying to keep all my favourite Thermomix recipes in one place so here goes:

Ingredients:

1. 1 large onion, halved
2. 1kg pumpkin, skin off and cut in to pieces
3. enough stock (I used vegetable) to come up to roughly 5cm under the top of the pumpkin
4. handful of raw cashews
5. basil (to serve)

Method:

1. Chop onions 5 seconds/speed 6
2. Add 10ml olive oil and cook 2 minutes/varoma/speed stir
3. Add pumpkin pieces and stock and cook 15 minutes/100C/speed stir
4. Check pumpkin is cooked, add cashews and blend 1 minute/speed 5 increasing to 9
5. Enjoy with a loaf of crusty bread !

Spiced roasted butternut pumpkin soup – two ways

I love soups. And it makes so much sense to make a giant pot of soup, have it as leftovers, or even freeze those that are suitable.

My problem is that I don’t always seem to want soup from the freezer, and often end up throwing it away. It’s very un-frugal of me and the waste upsets me.

Over the weekend I found a beautiful butternut squash – at $2 instead of the $10+ that I spend across the road for the same thing. Of course I just had to buy it.

I decided that I would do two types of soup with it, to try to give some variety, and hope to tickle my tastebuds enough to want to eat it again. And again.

The first way was to push a ladleful of it through a fine sieve, yielding the most silkily smooth soup that reminds me of the amouse-bouches that you sometimes get in fine restaurants. It’s such a treat and I don’t know why but the same soup seems to taste sweeter somehow ?

The second way was to keep it rustic (the sieving also takes time and any time saving is a good thing, right ?). This leftover I’ve frozen, but when I reheat it, I’ll add a dollop of cream and a glug of good olive oil to make it taste like the best pumpkin soup I’ve ever had.

Roasting the pumpkin intensifies the sugars and flavour and the spices just add an extra dimension to the soup.

Ingredients makes four bowls of soup

1. 1 large onion, diced
2. 1 medium sized butternut pumpkin
3. salt and pepper
4. ground tumeric
5. ground cumin
6. chicken stock
7. thick cream
8. good olive oil to serve

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 220CC/430F
2. Remove skin and seeds from pumpkin and cut into chunks
3. Coat with olive oil (doesn’t need to be the good stuff) and season with salt and pepper
4. Roast in the oven for 45 minutes
5. Sautee onion in some olive oil on low heat until translucent – about 5 minutes
6. Add the tumeric and cumin and fry off the “rawness” of the spices for another 5 minutes
7. Add the roasted pumpkin and add enough chicken stock to cover the pumpkin
8. Simmer for 30 minutes
9. Blend with an immersion blender until desired consistency (I like to keep it relatively smooth but still with some bits of pumpkin)
10. Option 1: Take a ladleful and push through a fine sieve and serve with just a few drops of good olive oil
11. Option 2: Serve hot, with a big dollop of cream, and a good glug of the good olive oil

 

 

Pumpkin Soup

If you want a simple, warming and nutritious meal on a weeknight that’s easy peasy and quick to make, this is a terrific soup to make.

Ingredients (for four)

• 1 small pumpkin – any that you have access to in your supermarket but butternut makes for a creamier soup
• Chicken stock
• Cream and olive oil to serve

Method

• Cut the skin off the pumpkin and cut into small chunks
• IF you have time, drizzle with olive oil and roast in an oven at 200C for 40 minutes as this makes the soup extra sweet
• If not, simply pop the pumpkin into a soup pot and cover with just enough stock to cover 3/4 of the pumpkin.  If you want a thinner soup, add more to cover the pumpkin
• Bring to the boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the pumpkin is tender
• Blend until smooth and creamy
• Add salt and pepper to taste
• Serve with a good dollop of cream and a drizzle of olive oil and a nice crusty loaf of bread