Pumpkin soup is a hearty winter meal and an all time family favourite enjoyed by many as either an entree or main meal.
Canned pumpkin soup tends to be a popular staple in many families pantries as a quick and easy option. The problem with many canned soups on the market, they are full of added sugar, table salt, cream, and unnecessary preservatives.
While not all packaged soups in your supermarket are necessarily bad, if you know how to sort out the good from the bad (like to find out more about how to understand food labels, check out my supermarket tour service) making your own pumpkin soup is not only easy to do but also tastes so much better than canned soup. Once you make your own, you will never buy canned soup again.
If you are needing to get some more veggies into the kids or maybe even the husband, this recipe has a few healthy hidden extras in it, that otherwise may not be in store brought canned soup nor would the kids eat them on their own. The great part about hidden veggies, is they won’t even be able to tell they are in the soup.
Roasted Pumpkin Soup
Ingredients:
- 1x large whole pumpkin- I use Jap but any variety will work.
- 4 x parsnips chopped
- 1 x large red apple sliced
- 1/2 bulb of fennel chopped
- 2-3 x garlic cloves
- 1 litre vegetable broth- my favourite can be found at health food stores> nutra organics
- 200ml coconut milk
- 1x tbsp unrefined cold pressed coconut oil
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp herbamare -can be found in health food aisle of supermarket
- pepper to taste
- A handful of pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
- Remove the skin from the pumpkin and cut pumpkin into small chunks.
- Chop up parsnips, apple and fennel and place on baking tray, along with the pumpkin and garlic cloves, leaving the skin of the garlic on. You may need to use two baking trays.
- Sprinkle veggies with herbamare, pepper and drizzle with coconut oil. Don’t be too sparing on the oil as this is what will give your fennel, apple and parsnips a nice crunch factor. Coconut oil has a high smoke point, meaning unlike other oils, it can be used at high temps for longer time frames without breakdown to trans fats. Just make sure you use unrefined coconut oil.
- Place baking tray in the oven and cook veggies for about 35-45mins, flipping half way.
- Remove roasted veggies and the garlic cloves (peel skin off) from the oven and place into a food processor along with 1 litre of vegetable broth or stock, spices and 200ml coconut milk. Blend soup until a smooth soup consistency forms with no chunks. If needed you can add a little more liquid.
- Place soup mixture into a pot over medium heat on the stove top and warm soup up, regularly stirring to avoid it sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- The soup is now ready to be served. Garnish with pepitas and sprinkle with pepper to taste. You can also sprinkle with a little cayenne pepper or chilli if you like a bit of spice. Maybe leave that one out for the kids though.
Soup is a great one to batch cook ahead of time and place in the freezer for a later time.
The soup is great by itself or can be served with oven toasted gluten free pita bread. You can make your own, or if time is poor, we often use the B free wraps (can be found at all good supermarkets) to make toasted pita bread to use to dip in soups.
While many of the wraps on the shelf, are highly processed and often don’t have the best of ingredients in them, these ones ain’t a too bad choice for a yummy gluten free allergy friendly option.
Enjoy.
Serves 6.
If you like this recipe give it a like, share, and leave a comment below and let me know how you went.
