Recipe: Pumpkin Soup

[beren_writes]

Ingredients
1Kg pumpkin - this is about half of one of the large pumpkins they were selling in Morrisons :)
700ml chicken or vegetable stock
2 large onions
salt
pepper
nutmeg (to taste - I used about a tspn I think)
140ml double (heavy) cream
a glug of oil for frying

Equipment
1 large saucepan (crock pot size at least)
1 sharp knife
french peeler for ease (the knife can be used instead)
spoon
hand blender
fine sieve (if you want a velvety texture)
spatula
chopping board
a couple of large bowls

Instructions

1. Peel and chop you pumpkin into about cm cubes (you can use larger, but you may have to cook them longer)
   
2. Chop the onions finely
   
3. Put the onions in the pan with the oil and sweat until soft (between 5 and 10 mins)
   
4. Add the pumpkin to the pan and cook for about 10 mins until the pumpkin is beginning to go golden
   
5. Add the stock and some salt and pepper to season.
   
6. Bring to the boil and simmer for between 10 and 20 mins until your pumpkin is soft.
   
7. Add the cream and the nutmeg to taste and bring back to the boil.
   
8. Take off the heat and blend using the hand blender (I managed to cover myself in pumpkin from neck to waist so wear a pinny ;))
   
9. Taste and add more seasoning if necessary.
   
10. If your pumpkin wasn't quite soft enough you can return to the heat for a little while
    
11. You soup is perfectly edible at this stage if you like your soup like that, however, if you want a velvety finish push the soup through a fine sieve into a large bowl. This takes a lot of time - took me a good half an hour, but it was worth it for the wonderful texture.

The soup will freeze well if you want to.

I made some garlic croutons by sprinkling bread with garlic granules and then shallow frying and it went very well with them.

You can also use other spices if you like; curried pumpkin soup is very nice, as is garlic pumpkin soup.

You could also substitute for the cream as well to make a lighter version.