Here’s a simple recipe to use up some of your pumpkin glut. This will make enough for four large portions.

Ingredients:
– 900g of roughly chopped and peeled pumpkin
– one large red onion
– one parsnip
– one carrot
– one large potato
– three cloves of garlic
– 150ml of double cream
– Two vegetable or chicken stock cubes
– 1tsp cinnamon
– 1tsp nutmeg
– 1tsp paprika
– salt and pepper to taste

Place the chopped carrot, onion, garlic, parsnip and potato in a pan with some water to cover, let the vegetables soften for around 10-15 minutes. Add the pumpkin and let it simmer for another 5-10 minutes and remove from the heat. Drain the water from the pan and then add the stock mixture. For extra flavour, we added one vegetable stock cube and one chicken stock cube. Allow this to simmer for around 20-30 minutes.

Put the softened vegetables and stock mix into a blender. Blend until smooth. Follow up with the double cream and blend until you are satisfied with the consistency. Put the soup back in the pan and gently heat.

If you do not have a blender, you can use a masher. Remove the pan from the heat and mash the mixture until you are satisfied. Stir in the double cream and place back on the hob to warm through.

If you want, you can roast the pumpkin seeds for an extra crunch. Rinse the seeds in cold water and then place the seeds on a clean tea towel to take off the excess moisture. Put them in a bowl with the seasoning of your choice; we used 1tsp of cinnamon and 1tsp of paprika. Add 1tsp of olive oil and mix the seasoning and pumpkin seeds until they are coated. Put them on a baking tray at 180°c, checking every 5 minutes until they are crispy. Ours took around 15-20 minutes.

And enjoy!

I love this recipe with a chunky slice of homemade bread.