October’s flavour packing pumpkin soup
A warming and colourful starter that’s easily whizzed up in an electric blender and serves four to six as an autumn meal starter.
Ingredients
- 25g/1oz butter
- 2 small onions thinly sliced and separated into rings
- 500g/pumpkin flesh chopped
- 1.2l/2 pints chicken stock
- 1 celery stalk chopped
- 1 large potato peeled and chopped
- 1tbsp lemon juice
- Salt
- Tabasco sauce
- 1 tsp paprika pepper
- 250ml/8fl oz double cream
- Croutons
Melt the butter in a solid based saucepan. Add the onions and pumpkin and fry until the onions are soft but not brown, then stir in the stock, celery, potato, lemon juice, paprika, a dash of Tabasco sauce and season with salt to taste. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about thirty minutes, until the vegetables are tender.
Let it cool a little then pour it all into an electric blender and strain it back into the saucepan, you can push it through a sieve. Stir the double cream into the soup and reheat gently without boiling. Serve with a generous helping of croutons.