Easy pumpkin soup

Fast and easy pumpkin soup recipe with a perfect balance of sweet, sour and spicy flavors: completely vegan and healthy with 0 mg cholesterol.

Many people – including me – consider pumpkin soup as to sweet and too bland. To balance the flavors however, it’s so easy to compensate the sweet taste with lemon juice and make the soup more spicy with a little bit of fresh ginger, garlic and chili flakes.

An equally important step is to simmer your pumpkin for about 10 minutes with the rest of the vegetables, before adding the vegetable stock. Many recipes , like this pumpkin recipe from Jamie Oliver, bake the pumpkin first about 40 minutes in the oven. Lots of electricity (and money) wasted and a long wait, since you can simply cut the pumpkin into small pieces (1 cm square or less than ½ inch square), let it sweat for about 10 minutes with the onions to add an equally delicious flavor to the soup.

Following Jamie’s recipes, I didn’t discard the seeds. I wiped them clean with a paper towel and fried them unpeeled for 3 to 4 minutes in olive oil in a non-stick pan, with some pepper and salt until the seeds browned in color. A crunchy curiosity, just make sure to go easy on the salt.

For a thick puree use as much moisture as pumpkin. Do you want the soup a little less thick, work with the ratio 4 parts pumpkin to 5 parts stock: e.g. 400 g(14 oz) pumpkin in 500 ml (17 fluid oz) of stock.

Instead of just vegetable stock, I used:

• 150 ml (5 fluid oz) of broth (I always freeze the broth in such small portions, ideal for a quick and tasty sauce) with
• 250 ml (8 ½ fluid oz) of almond milk (made with 16 soaked and peeled almonds).

The nutty flavor associated with autumn combines ideally with an autumn vegetable like pumpkin.

Balance the sweetness of the pumpkin with your lemon juice of choice to taste.

Easy vegan pumpkin soup recipe for 2

• a dash of olive oil
• 400 g (14 oz) de-seeded and peeled pumpkin
• 400 ml (13 ½ fluid oz) "vegetable stock" : 150 ml (5 fluid oz) stock + 250 ml (8 ½ fluid oz) almond milk
• 1 small white onion
• a left over piece of leek of 5 cm (2 inch)
• salt and pepper
• a 2.5 cm (1 inch) piece of fresh ginger
• 1 clove of garlic
• a pinch of coarse cayenne pepper
• some fresh coriander leaves with stems
• juice of 1/2 calamansi lime (to taste)
• a mixer (hand blender)

How to make delicious vegan pumpkin soup

1. Take a soup pot and add a splash of olive oil.
2. Cut the onion into small pieces and let simmer over low heat. Stir occasionally and make sure that it doesn’t start sticking nor that the color turns brown.
3. Meanwhile, peel the pumpkin and remove the seeds. Cut the pumpkin into small pieces of 1 cm (less than ½ inch): the small size is very important, so take your time!)
4. When the onions are translucent, add the chopped fresh ginger and the bruised garlic clove. (I now also added the piece of leek that I found in the refrigerator, cut into 1 cm (½ inch) pieces.
5. Season with salt, pepper and cayenne pepper.
6. Stir occasionally and let it sweat of a few minutes.
7. Then add the chopped pumpkin and stir. Leave about 10 minutes to simmer, stirring occasionally, until the pumpkin pieces seem to become a bit tender.
8. Pour in the almond milk and the vegetable stock, bring to the boil, put the lid on and simmer for about 20 minutes.
9. When the pumpkin is cooked (you should be able to easily squeeze a piece with a spoon against the side of your pot), take the pot from the fire.
10. Mash/puree the pumpkin soup with a hand blender.
11. Add to taste some cut coriander leaves, lemon juice and if needed more salt and pepper. Add a bit more water if needed as well and your easy peasy pumpkin soup is ready to serve.