When Jack Frost comes to visit, I greet him with comfort food!
Firstly, the ubiquitous yet consistently popular pumpkin soup....
What you'll need
The How-to
What you'll need
Ingredients
· a stick of celery
· an onion
· half a parsnip
· half a Swede
· two carrots
· approximately half a kilo (or two large chunks!) of pumpkin [I use Kent pumpkin]
· 2 litres of chicken stock
· an extra cup of water
Kitchen equipment (however, these are not vital)
· a large saucepan or stock pot
· a food processor
· a stick blender
The How-to
1. Peel and chop the vegetables (except the pumpkin), either by hand or in your trusty food processor.
The trusty Moulinex doing its work!
2. Peel and chop the pumpkin with a large knife VERY CAREFULLY!
Beware the fury of the Furi knife... IT'S SHARP!!!
3. Place the stock and the water into the pot.
If store-bought stock is good enough for Nigella, it's good enough for me!
4. Place the chopped vegetables into the pot.
Mmmm...pumpkin.
5. Bring the contents to the boil.
Don't you wish you had a Smell-o-computer?
6. Reduce to a simmer and place a lid on the pot.
7. Simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
8. After testing the vegetables to ensure that they are extremely soft, take the pot off the heat.
9. Using the stick blender, blend the soup until you are satisfied with its consistency. You may prefer a textured soup; I enjoy very smooth pumpkin soup, so I blend the soup completely. BE CAREFUL that the hot soup does not flick up and burn you whilst using the stick blender!
Take it carefully and slowly - this stuff burns!
10. Voila! Your soup is finished and ready to eat, freeze or store in the fridge for later reheating.
11. You may like to add salt, pepper, cream, creme fraiche or sour cream to taste before serving.
NB. If you plan to store/freeze the soup, you may find it is quite thick when reheating. Simply add 1/2 - 1 cup of tap water into the soup to thin it down a little.
More tomorrow - the pea and ham soup is presently in the slow cooker!
I-R
xx