Fabian's Fusion Hokkaido Pumpkin Soup
Delicious warming spiced pumpkin and carrot soup with an exciting garnish of buttered croutons, crispy bacon, greek yoghurt and fresh coriander
Ingredients
- 1 Hokkaido pumpkin, *see recipe notes
- 2 medium carrots, chopped into 2cm x 2cm cubes
- 2 onions, chopped fine
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp butter
- 25g ginger, minced
- 1 red chili, chopped fine
- 100ml white wine
- 800ml homemade chicken stock, or a high-quality shop-bought version
- 200ml coconut milk
- 200ml orange juice
- Squeeze of lemon juice
- Salt & pepper
Garnish
- 8 pieces of streaky bacon
- 8 slices white crusty bread
- 1 tbsp butter
- 4 heaped tbsp of thick Greek yoghurt
- Handful of fresh coriander
Instructions
- Cut Hokkaido pumpkin in half, remove seeds and stringy flesh. Leaving the skin on, cut into 2cm x 2cm chunks. You will need 900g of pumpkin for the soup. Weigh this amount out and save any leftover pumpkin for another recipe.
- Using a large pot, fry the onions and ginger over medium heat until soft. Add pumpkin and carrot along with a good pinch of salt and continue to cook for a few minutes, adding another splash of oil if needed.
- Deglaze the pot with white wine, then pour in the chicken stock, orange juice, and 1 tsp of sugar. Cover with a lid and turn the heat down to simmer for 20 minutes.
- Prepare the garnish: Remove crusts from bread and chop each piece into cubes for croutons.
- Heat a large frying pan with a splash of oil and fry bacon slices until crispy. Remove and set aside for later. Using the same pan add one tablespoon of butter to the bacon fat. When melted throw in croutons and toss around the pan until fully coated in the fat and butter. Cook until crispy brown. Remove from the pan and set aside for later.
- To finish the soup: In a small saucepan, melt one tablespoon of butter. Once melted remove from the heat and stir through ground cumin, coriander, turmeric and chopped chilli. Add the coconut milk and spiced butter to the soup, stir, replace the lid and continue to simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove soup pot from the heat. Allow it to cool with the lid off for 5 minutes, then using a hand blender, blend the soup until smooth. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, taste and season with salt and pepper as needed.
- Divide soup between bowls, garnish with croutons, bacon, a spoon of Greek yoghurt and fresh coriander leaves.
Notes
This recipe requires 900g of chopped pumpkin. This is the total amount required once the seeds and inside stringy flesh have been removed. A medium-sized pumpkin will be perfectly fine, but you may need 2 if they are very small. In any case, you might end up with leftover pumpkin. This can be kept in the fridge and used the next day for toasting, mash, purees, cookies, cakes etc.