Creamy pumpkin soup

Why do I make pumpkin soup every now and then, anyway? Where did this recipe come from? Sometimes I surprise myself. Probably because lately (for the past three years or so, every autumn) it’s been pumpkin season (read: pumpkins are fashionable). Not just because of Halloween, either. This strange vegetable has generally found its way back into people’s good books.

Perhaps it’s also because it’s a pretty simple soup, low in calories apparently, and the way I make it below it’s actually rather tasty. Unfortunately you do need to stock up on ingredients you’re unlikely to use when cooking traditional Polish food. It’s worth a try. You can still buy pumpkins and this soup warms you up like the finest homemade liqueur.

At a glance:

Prep time: about 60 minutes

Serves: 4

How many calories: I don’t think it’s too bad

Ingredients for a delicate, smooth pumpkin soup:

• One not particularly large pumpkin (I usually go for an orange one, but the dark-green-skinned kind is good too)
• 4 large carrots
• 2 medium potatoes (pyry in Poznań, kartofle in Kielce)
• two tablespoons of olive oil (truth is, for about 6 years now I haven’t used any other vegetable fat in my kitchen. I only make an exception when frying chips, sorry)
• half a small courgette
• two glasses of vegetable stock (I freely admit it: yes, I make it from a cube)
• one and a half teaspoons of green curry paste (I buy TaoTao. This isn’t an advert or product placement)
• a teaspoon of red curry paste (if you like a bit more heat. If not, leave it out)
• a teaspoon of salt
• a teaspoon of sugar
• a piece of ginger (you can skip it. The curry paste pretty much takes care of the flavour)
• a pinch of ground pepper
• wholemeal bread (for the croutons. I make them myself)
• a clove of garlic
• cream for the soup (12% fat. Remember, fat kills)

Method (how to make it):

13 ingredients, and the soup’s as simple as a farmhand’s flail out near Motkowice. I clean the seeds and soft pulp out of the pumpkin, cut it into pieces and peel it (apparently some people make soup with the skin on, but I’m not keen. It’d be like eating a turtle with its shell). I dice the peeled pumpkin and add it to the olive oil heating in the pot. I peel the potatoes and throw them in with the pumpkin. Then I add the finely chopped carrots and courgette (washed, skin on). I fry the lot for about 25 minutes, stirring often (on the whole, I think good cooking boils down to stirring frequently).

When all the ingredients are soft, I pour the vegetable stock over them. I add the seasonings and curry pastes and cook everything for about 25 minutes. Half of the stock needs to evaporate.

While the soup cooks, I cut the wholemeal bread into little cubes (as you can see in the photo), spread them on foil, sprinkle them with crushed garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Into an oven preheated to 200 degrees Celsius for about 10 minutes, until the croutons are hard but not burnt.

Once the soup is cooked, I let it cool a little and blend it with a stick blender. You want a smooth soup that isn’t too thick. If it’s too thick, I add a little boiled water. I heat it all up once more. I serve it with a dollop of cream and the croutons. Quite edible. Enjoy!