The perfect soup for a cold rainy day! We let our pumpkin patch grow wild at the bottom of our garden every year, our bees love the pumpkin flowers! And in autumn we usually get a good harvest of pumpkins to keep us going through the winter. This is a recipe we make regularly to use them up! This soup is warming, full of flavour and filling. It’s easy and quick to prepare and a cheap lunch or dinner option.
Although it seems simple there is lots going on in there! The ingredients in this soup contain immune boosting nutrients which are great to add to your diet as we transition through autumn and winter. Firstly the pumpkin and lentils provide a good source of fibre, which helps feed the good gut bacteria to support a healthy immune system. The pumpkin is rich in carotenoids, nutrients with a powerful antioxidant effect and converted by the body into Vitamin A, which is an essential nutrient for the immune system. And last but not least, turmeric is anti-inflammatory, ginger and chilli are warming and stimulate circulation and the garlic and onions have a natural antibiotic effect! So all in all, a simple but powerful bowl of soup – enjoy!
Ingredients
1 brown onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger (or 1 tsp dried ginger)
1/2 red chilli (or more if you want more heat!)
2 teaspoons dried turmeric
1/2 medium Crown pumpkin, deseeded, skin removed and chopped into cubes (around 5 cups)
1 cup split red lentils (soaked for 2 hours prior)
1 tin coconut milk
3-4 cups vegetable stock or water
Salt and cracked black pepper to taste.
Method
- Soak the split red lentils for around 2 hours before making this soup to improve their digestibility – add the cup of lentils to a large mason jar and cover with water to about 5cm above the lentils.
- Chop the onion, chilli and pumpkin, crush the garlic and grate the ginger.
- Saute the onion in some olive oil in a large pan, once softened add the garlic, ginger and chilli and turmeric and cook for a further minute. Add the chopped pumpkin to the pan, give everything a good stir and put a lid on and sweat the vegetables down on a low heat for around 10 minutes when the pumpkin is getting soft.
- Drain and rinse the lentils and add to the pan, along with the stock and the coconut milk. Bring to a simmer and cook for a further 20 minutes.
- Use a stick blender to blend the soup, leaving some chunks of pumpkin if you prefer. Season the soup with salt and cracked black pepper.
- Serve with some chopped green herbs on top – coriander or parsley work well.
Notes:
If you have kids that are sensitive to strong flavours, such as ginger or chilli, adjust the amounts of these to suit.
You could roast the pumpkin instead of sautéing in the pan (or better still use leftover roast pumpkin!)