Pumpkin & Kumara Soup

It’s definitely winter right now, and winter means time for soups, flannel sheets, hot water bottles, and other keeping warm measures.

This is my first ever recipe that I successfully converted to whole foods plant-based. It comes from adapting a real tasty but very, very simple recipe from the flatmate of a friend of mine in Dunedin. It has very basic and inexpensive ingredients and demonstrates that you don’t have to get all flash to make stuff tasty.

You’ll need 3 cups of vegetable stock. I explained how to make your own vegetable stock in the Chickpea Biryani post. And I had a bunch of scraps saved to make stock, but unfortunately I’d left things a bit too long in the fridge and the scraps had gone bad (best to freeze if you’re going to be a while, live and learn).

Usually the vegetable stock flavours this up quite nicely, but I just used water and added a few extra spices (some bayleaves – remember to remove before blending – a little ginger, coriander, and cumin). I also substituted in my trusty chipotle for the minced red chilli. I’ll have to write something just about chipotle sometime I think!

Anyhow, the result is seen in the photo above. It was delicious as always, the pumpkin and kumara combo works together really nicely. And the red lentils help make things more hearty and filling.

It goes really well with crusty bread or toast just like standard pumpkin soup. Garnished with a few leafy greens (spinach pictured!) or some coriander, with freshly ground black pepper if you’re into that.

Pumpkin & Kumara Soup

1 onion, finely chopped

1/2 teaspoon of minced red chilli

3/4 teaspoon of garlic (about 2 cloves chopped)

500g pumpkin cut into 2cm cubes

1 kumara cut into 2cm cubes

3 cups vegetable stock

1/2 cup red lentils

Add the first five ingredients to a medium sized soup pot, and cook for 5 minutes on low-medium heat. Add vegetable stock and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Add red lentils. Cook for a further 10 minutes. Blend. Serve.