Spiced Pumpkin Soup Recipe

I successfully grew quite a few butternut pumpkin this year and have been trying out a range of different pumpkin recipes. This Spiced Pumpkin Soup recipe is delicious and has a different twist from other pumpkin soup recipes I’ve tried. You can also make tasty ‘pumpkin fritters’ to serve with it.

Spiced Pumpkin Soup Recipe
1 butternut pumpkin, about 1.2 kilograms, quartered
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon each ground ginger, cumin and curry powder
¼ teaspoon each ground cinnamon and chilli flakes
400-gram tin crushed Italian tomatoes
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
sea salt and ground pepper

To serve
coconut or plain yoghurt
chopped parsley or coriander

Remove the seeds and peel the pumpkin. Set one quarter aside for the fritters then roughly chop the remaining pieces.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the pumpkin and onion with a good pinch of salt. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until just tender.
Stir in the garlic and all the spices and cook for 2 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and stock, season and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat then partially cover and simmer for 20 minutes.

To serve: Divide the soup between bowls and top with a dollop of yoghurt, parsley or coriander and the fritters.

Pumpkin Fritters
1 quarter pumpkin, from recipe above
1 egg, beaten
⅓ cup brown rice flour
⅓ cup desiccated coconut
1 teaspoon curry powder
vegetable oil, for cooking
sea salt and ground pepper

Cut the pumpkin into 1cm thick slices.
Put the egg in a shallow dish and season. Combine the flour, coconut and curry powder in another shallow dish and season.
Dip the pumpkin in the egg then in the coconut mixture, lightly shaking off the excess.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a sauté pan and cook the pumpkin in batches until tender and golden on both sides. Don’t have the pan too hot or the crust will catch and burn before the pumpkin is cooked through.