Kaja’s pumpkin soup

Kaja wrote this recipe. Yes, Kaja’s making a little comeback. I have to admit the pumpkin soup recipe is fine, but the time I had to wait for it was anything but. And those photos… Even here at Primitive Kitchen there are things I can’t bring myself to accept. These got through on one big IF. Make that a very big IF.

Oh, and that bit Kaja wrote about peeling the thing. I don’t go to the gym. Just look how easily I deal with a pumpkin 🙂

What saves Kaja, despite everything, is that somewhere in the recipe she calls me “probably someone ambitious”. All right then, go on and read her pumpkin soup recipe.

“I decided to make soup when I saw some pumpkin at the shop. I’d never made pumpkin soup before. I didn’t even know pumpkin was so cheap! So I bought a piece. Once home I decided it was too small. If I was going to make soup, I might as well make lots of it. So I went and bought some more. A whole small pumpkin this time.

Then came the prep… If you think the gym gives you a workout, try peeling a pumpkin. After half an hour of flexing my muscles and worrying I might slice my fingers off, I managed it. And then? Another problem. There was so much pumpkin it wouldn’t fit in the saucepan. I had to transfer it to the bigger pot we normally cook the dog’s soup in (sorry, Rojściu, I promise to wash it afterwards).

It was easy from there. The soup was delicious. And there was a lot of it. So much that I decided to check the labels to see how much pumpkin I’d actually bought… Turns out it was 4 kg in all, soooo… once I’d prepped it and added the water, I had about 5 litres of soup. It lasted a veeeery loooong time 🙂

Which would have been great, except that every day, as I happily ate it, someone reminded me to give him the recipe. Now, no one has to talk me into a workout, but try talking me into doing anything else that takes even the tiniest bit of effort. I admit it, I’m pretty lazy. So I was cunningly bribed with homemade preserves. Why cunningly? Because I was given a tiny taster of this delicious fig jam (a note from PrymitywnaKuchnia.pl: fig marmalade), along with a photo of a pot of the stuff bubbling away and a message saying I could forget about getting any more unless I handed over the recipe.

So on the sixth day I finished the soup, wrote the recipe, and the whole thing wore me out so much I have no plans to make pumpkin soup again until next autumn.

Now, down to business. Here’s the hard-won recipe for that magical creamy pumpkin soup!”

At a glance: 

Prep time: 60 minutes (if you’re in more of a hurry, I recommend this quick creamy pumpkin soup recipe)

Serves: lots of people, or a few people for lots of days

Calories: can’t be many, because I was hungry after eating it

Ingredients for Kaja’s pumpkin soup:

• 4 kg pumpkin 🙁 but you can use less 🙂
• Curry powder – about 5 tablespoons
• Salt – to taste (I kept adding it and adding it, stirring, adding more – to taste, how should I know how much? Enough for 5 litres of soup, so quite a bit :))
• 3 garlic cloves
• A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger (a big thumb)
• Juice of half a lemon (or a whole one, you’ll have to taste it)
• A tin of coconut milk (400 ml)
• A tablespoon of olive oil
• Water (probably about 2 litres – enough to cover the pumpkin)
• A packet of pumpkin seeds

How to make what Kaja came up with:

Prepare the pumpkin (peel it, scoop out the seeds and all that – I haven’t even got the energy to write about it). Cut it into small pieces (about the size of a big thumb). Heat the olive oil in a huuuuge saucepan and add the grated garlic and ginger (I use the same grater for both. I don’t even peel the ginger – did I mention I’m lazy? But I reckon this is a blog for lazy women anyway).

Fry briefly, add the pumpkin, stir and fry a little longer. It won’t be easy, there’s so much of it, but let it pick up at least a little of that caramel flavour you get from frying. Meanwhile boil some water in the kettle and pour it over the pumpkin, enough to cover the lot (someone ambitious will probably say you could use stock). But why make stock when you don’t have to and plain water will do?).

Cook for about 30 minutes (to soften the pumpkin), then blend until smooth (careful, mine started vibrating and leaping out of the pan…). Heat it up again, pour in the coconut milk and season it – you want the flavours to stand out 🙂 uh-huh 🙂 exactly, just like that. Good luck! Let the soup cook a little longer with the seasonings.

Meanwhile toast the pumpkin seeds in a dry frying pan (they should be golden and fragrant – watch out, they jump out of the pan). Serve each portion of soup sprinkled with seeds.

That’s it! Enjoy!