Pumpkin soup

Method

1. Cut the pumpkin into 3cm / 2.25" slices. Cut the skin off and scrape seeds out (video is helpful). Cut into 4cm / 1.5" chunks.
2. Place the pumpkin, onion, garlic, broth and water in a pot – liquid won't quite cover all the pumpkin. Bring to a boil, uncovered, then reduce heat and let simmer rapidly until pumpkin is tender (check with butter knife) – about 10 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and use a stick blender to blend until smooth (Note 3 for blender).
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper, stir through cream (never boil soup after adding cream, cream will split).
5. Ladle soup into bowls, drizzle over a bit of cream, sprinkle with pepper and parsley if desired. Serve with crusty bread!
6. Notes: 1. Pumpkin – ~2.4lb / 1.2kg pumpkin before peeling and removing seeds. Approximate is fine – use the liquid levels in the video as a guide for quantity. Butternut Squash is also ideal in this. It’s called Butternut Pumpkin in Australia. To make this with canned pumpkin puree, you will need 2 cans. Add it in place of the fresh pumpkin and follow recipe as is. 2. Cream – cream will add a layer of richness to the mouthfeel. But it is truly still delicious even made without – I often make it with just milk. To add a rich finish, I sometimes stir through a bit of butter instead! 3. Pureeing – you can use a blender BUT you must make sure that the soup is cooled slightly before blending it, otherwise you will find out the hard way that hot soup + blender = soup explosion (literally, the lid will blow off the blender when you start blending it).