We never really ate pumpkin when I was a kid and this food just wasn't really on my cooking radar until we attended a bat mitzva this week at which pumpkin soup was served.
The Little Person announced that pumpkin appears in her "Kef Le-ekhol Bari" (it's fun to eat healthy) book, and that the book suggests making it into soup.
She much enjoyed her bat-mitzva party pumpkin soup and the next day at the supermarket asked to buy ingredients to make our own pumpkin soup and when we got home she dutifully researched pumpkin soup recipes in my various cookery books and on-line, finally settling on a Thai recipe, for which fortunately we happened to have all the ingredients.
In the end Junior gobbled up about a third of the pumpkin I roasted for the soup before it could get into the soup, so I ended up adding other veggies to the recipe due to the sudden dearth of pumpkin.
Now that you know the story, please find my improvised soup recipe below, I think this is what I did, it is, as I said, slightly improvised. I'm pretty sure this would work nicely with any selection of squash veggies. I tend to measure by eye, so amounts are approximate, ymmv.
Enjoy - we did!
P.S. She says that the roasted pumpkin was a yummacious snack.
Ingredients:
1.5-2kg pumpkin (approx), chunked
1 medium-small aubergine (eggplant) - we used the stripey kind, chunked
salt
black pepper
olive oil
Thai green curry paste
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 head garlic, finely chopped or minced
1 "thumb" fresh ginger, finely chopped, minced or grated
1 parsley root, chunked1 carrot, chunked
Generous bunch fresh coriander, finely chopped
Generous bunch fresh basil, finely chopped
Water (about a cup)
1 can coconut milk or coconut cream(optional)
1 can chopped tomato (or a few fresh chopped tomatoes if you have)
Lemon or lime juice
1) Preheat oven to 180 C. Arrange chunked pumpkin and aubergine on a large baking tray. Sprinkle liberally with black pepper and a little salt. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for about half an hour, or until it starts to soften.
2) In a largish pot heat about a little olive oil. Gradually mix in about a teaspoon of Thai curry paste. (This paste can be quite strong, so best to start off with a small amount, you can always add more later if it isn't firey enough for you.) Add chopped onion and saute for a few minutes until onion starts to soften.
3) Add chopped/minced garlic and ginger. Cover pot and allow to "sweat" for a few minutes, stir well, add chunked parsley root and carrot and "sweat" a few more minutes.
4) Add baked pumpkin and aubergine to the pot. Simmer with half cup-cup of water (water should just cover veggies) until all the veggies are soft.
5) Add the finely chopped coriander and basil and mix thoroughly into veggies. If you're using chopped tomatoes, add them now too.
6) Using an electric blender wand puree the soup until it reaches the desired consistency, ours came out smooth and creamy.
7) Add the coconut milk/cream and mix thoroughly.
8) Add some lemon or lime juice to taste. If the soup isn't firey enough for you, add more Thai curry paste.
9) Serve hot or cold.
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