pumpkin’s not for pie

I've been super lucky to be given two homegrown pumpkins in the last week. One Butternut and one Jap (or Kent). Both glorious.

The first was in exchange for a bag of new mandarins off one of our trees (don't you LOVE a barter?!) and the second was a gift from new friends (who feel just like old friends) who treated us to lunch on their verandah this weekend overlooking amazing green hills.

So pumpkin soup for dinner, and we'll roast the rest for pasta or risotto later this week. YUM.

(With homemade hummus and flatbread.)

PUMPKIN SOUP

Ingredients:

2 small leeks

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

tbsp olive oil

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground tumeric

1 tsp ground coriander

approx half a Butternut pumpkin, peeled & chopped

approx a third of a Jap pumpkin, peeled & chopped

3 medium potatoes, peeled & sliced

approx 1 litre of chicken stock

1 cup red lentils

Method:

Cook the leeks (trimmed, washed), the onion and garlic in the oil until translucent. Fry off the spices for a minute or two. Add the pumpkin and potato and cover with stock. Stir in the red lentils.

Cook for approx 30 minutes or until the vegetables are soft and the red lentils have thoroughly cooked down (and disappeared.)

Blend with hand blender until smooth.

I got the idea for adding the red lentils from my mother in law – they're such perfect protein and no one would know they were there! Jen adds coconut milk to hers too, which is delicious.

Ivy will have the pumpkin soup with cous cous stirred through it tomorrow. She eats before the rest of us then snacks in her high chair while we eat.

Tonight it's peas.