Pumpkin Soup

This is wonderful fall soup with the hearty fall flavours associated with pumpkin but also a surprising little kick and some sweetness to round things out. Add a drizzle of heavy cream just before serving to make this even more rich, although if you want to make it vegan you can drop the cream/milk and use vegetable stock.

The Recipe: Pumpkin SoupThis recipe takes about 30 minutes if pumpkin is precooked, Serves 4
Two cups of pureed pumpkin
3 tbsp butter
1 cooking onion diced
3 carrots diced
4 stocks of celery diced (if you want a more rich orange colour leaves these out)
4 cups of stock
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp allspice
1 tsp sea salt
1 cup of milk (the higher the fat content, the richer the soup)
1 tbsp of whipping cream per bowl

Heat a large saucepan to medium-high heat and add the butter, onion, carrots and celery. In a separate pot heat the stock to a simmer and turn of the heat. Sautee, stirring frequently for about 7 minutes until the vegetables are soft.

Add the pumpkin, salt, sugar, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and cayenne and continue cooking for another 2 minutes until the pumpkin is brought up to heat.

Stir contents and pour into blender HOT CONTENTS IN BLENDER ALERT, be careful, use a tea towel over the lide and hold tight. Add enough of the stock to be able to puree the contents in a blender until very smooth. Return the contents to the saucepan straining it though a metal seive. This is very important, as it will ensure your pumpkin soup is silky smooth, however it will take some work and you probably have some leftover mash in your seive that will not go through.

Add the remaining stock to the saucepan and add the milk. Bring the pumkpin soup up to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and put in bowls.

To get the pattern like in the picture, drizzle the whipping cream lightly in a sprial over the soup, then with a knife, starting in the middle, drag the knife to the edge of the bowl and repeat about 8 times going around the bowl. Serve and enjoy!