0 Pumpkin rosemary soup

When life throws you pumpkins, do you (i) turn it into pumpkin pie, (ii) make a mediterranean vegetable roast, or (iii) churn it into velvety pumpkin soup? Having bought a quarter of Australian Blue pumpkin today, I decided on the latter. Some recipes for pumpkin soup call for canned pumpkin which, of course, is more convenient, saving the hassle of chopping, roasting, blending and washing up. I'm not sure if there's much of a difference in taste, but at least using fresh allays concerns of BPA ingestion. This soup is best paired with some toasty bread and a side salad.

Pumpkin rosemary soup
Makes 1 large serve or 2 small

Ingredients

• 200g pumpkin, skins on and diced into half-moons
• 1/4 medium red onion, diced
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
• 150 ml water, divided into 100 ml and 50 ml
• 60 ml fresh milk
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• salt & pepper

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180 C.
2. Roast pumpkin with olive oil, garlic and rosemary for 15 min or until slightly soft. Remove skins from pumpkin and cut into cubes.
3. In a sauce pan, heat olive oil over medium heat and saute onion for 2 min. Add roasted pumpkin, garlic and rosemary and saute for another 2-3 min.
4. Pour 100 ml water and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 8-10 min. Turn off the flame and let cool.
5. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with fresh rosemary. Serve warm.

I loved the pairing of sweet pumpkin with the tea-like, slightly bitter rosemary. By far the best pumpkin soup in my recipe books! A juicy salmon sandwich accompanied the luscious soup. I wished I could say I baked the beautiful bread (below) myself, but the credit goes to Swissbake. Their Fitness Brot is a rye and wheat based bread packed generously with carrots, oats, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds. Although not stated in the ingredient list, I spotted flax seeds too. The variety of ingredients gives it a nice chewy and crunchy texture. I scored a great deal, having bought it at 50% off at $5, just because it was packed yesterday (14 July) compared to the fresh loaves on the shelf (packed 15 July). What a difference one day makes!