Quick creamy pumpkin soup

A quick post today because I still have a film to edit. Yes, a film called “How to make creamy pumpkin soup”. Seriously! I don’t know if you’ve heard, but PrymitywnaKuchnia.pl recently got its very own YouTube channel. You’ll find it here.

Today I also tried filming with two cameras for the first time. One in my paw, the other on a stand (well, on the laptop screen :). We’ll see how it goes. Of course, now I’ve announced in the post that the footage is on its way, I’d better paste it in here in a minute.

Why a creamy pumpkin soup recipe, anyway? I wrote about it last year. It was one of the first posts on Prymitywna, which will be turning one very soon, really very soon. Hmm, still a baby, then. Just as well, since when I write here I sometimes make a point of being positively infantile.

Back to the soup. Last year, when I posted the recipe for a rather fancier creamy pumpkin soup than this one, I wrote about the craze for this vegetable. So I honestly hope the craze hasn’t gone with the wind, or with whatever the hell else, and that you’ll want to try my new recipe. Brand new, in fact, and simpler and quicker (twice as quick) to boot. All for this delicious dish.

This year’s version is milder than the last. It’s velvety, seems fairly light and low in calories, yet still warms you up. Admittedly today is pretty warm even for early September, so that part doesn’t suit me at all. I’m glad it’s light, though, because yesterday I committed the sin of eating after 23 hundred hours. My only absolution is that it was exquisite octopus and tender beef, with plenty of vegetables and salad. I recommend it!

UPDATE – here it is (besides watching, do read the recipe too):

At a glance: 

Prep time: 10 minutes

Frying / cooking time: about 20 minutes

Serves: about 4–5 portions

Calories: here comes winter, fierce and grim, let it come, we won’t give in. Pumpkin soup goes down a treat, hey there, winter, can’t be beat! (As a young shepherd from “Zakłopane” once sang to me.)

Ingredients for a quick and easy pumpkin soup:

• half a medium pumpkin (I can’t remember what it weighed, unfortunately, but you can see it in the video)
• 1 small carrot
• 1 medium onion
• 1 small apple (preferably one of the less sweet kinds)
• a piece of spring onion (see the video)
• 1 large garlic clove
• a piece of red chilli (it gives the soup a lovely colour, but leave it out if you don’t like heat)
• a 2 cm piece of fresh ginger
• a vegetable stock cube (you can use your own previously prepared stock)
• 18% soup cream (not too thick)
• a teaspoon of red curry paste (the paste is fairly hot. Use half a teaspoon if you prefer things mild)
• olive oil
• salt
• ground black pepper

Method (you’ll need a blender and a medium saucepan):

I started with the stock. I put a vegetable stock cube in a mug, poured boiling water over it and stirred well to dissolve it. I set it aside. It’ll come in handy later 🙂

I peeled and diced half a medium pumpkin (you can see it in the video). I also peeled and chopped the onion, apple, carrot and garlic.

I heated the olive oil in a medium saucepan and gently fried the onion and finely chopped garlic, taking care not to burn them. Once they’d softened a little, I added the pumpkin pieces. I mixed everything well and fried it for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Next I added the chopped carrot and apple, and the fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped. I stirred thoroughly.

While the vegetables were frying over low heat, I chopped the spring onion and chilli.

I seasoned the vegetables in the pan with salt, ground black pepper and a teaspoon of hot red curry paste. I mixed well and added the vegetables that were still sitting out (the spring onion and chilli). I stirred again. After about 1–2 minutes I poured in the stock and added another 250–300 millilitres or so of water (roughly another mugful).

I gave it a stir. The soup shouldn’t be thick at this point. I cooked it for about another 10 minutes, then set it aside briefly so it was no longer boiling hot (as Magda Gessler puts it, “blending hot soup kills your blender blades”, or something along those lines ;).

Once it had cooled a little I blended it thoroughly (in other words, I puréed all the vegetables in the soup until smooth). I served it with a dollop of 18% soup cream. All done. Enjoy!