Nothing warms your belly quite like a big bowl of pumpkin goodness.

—————————-

Our version of the typical ‘mums homemade pumpkin soup’ has added immune boosting properties with the addition of turmeric and ginger. Super nourishing and warming on a chilly night. We love to get a little over board with our toppings, adding avocado, wilted kale, cheese, extra spice, fresh herbs and sometimes some protein like poached chicken. The options are endless!

Like most of our recipes, this soup is easy to throw together – all you need are a few staple spices like turmeric and cumin, herbs like parsley and thyme and veggies.

** Also, the small side bowl in the above image is a sneak peak of our pumpkin and sweet potato curry. The recipe for this little gem will be up on the blog soon!

Ingredients

– 3/4 of a large butternut pumpkin

– 1 Leek

– 2 small carrots

– 750 ml of water (1 Litre if you want a ‘thinner’ consistency)

Use a homemade vegetable stock if you have that on hand, if not water is fine! (we used water)

– 2 garlic cloves

– 1 small/medium brown onion

– 1 tsp of grated fresh ginger

– 1 tbsp of ground turmeric or grated fresh turmeric root

– 1 tsp of ground cumin

– 1 Bay Leaf

– 1 quarter of a cup of finely chopped fresh herbs (thyme, sage and parsley)

– Half a tsp of cayenne pepper

– Pepper to taste

– Himalayan Salt to taste

Toppings: Avocado, wilted kale, parsley and bocconcini cheese. We also added a ‘Moroccan souk’ spice that we purchased from a spice shop in the city. You can just finish with either dusting some more turmeric or quickly whipping up your own dukkah.

Method

1. Heat your pot with some coconut oil and start by sautéing your onion, garlic and ginger. Heat till onion browns (be careful not to burn it)

2. Add a dash of water and all your spices and keep sautéing for a couple of minutes to create a paste like consistency.

3. Next add your Leek – sauté for a few minutes before adding your pumpkin and carrots.

4. Cook the veggies in the pot for about 10 minutes, making sure to continue stirring so that the onion doesn’t brown.

5. Add your water, himalayan salt and bay leaf and bring the pot to a boil.

6. Once boiling, lower the heat and simmer for about half an hour (the longer the better).

7. Turn off the heat and blend your mixture with a hand blender.

8. Voila! You have made pumpkin soup, easy hey?

9. Top with your favourites. We mixed through some wilted kale, avocado, bocconcini cheese (we also love haloumi in soup) and parsley

10. EAT